Two Days After Attempted Suicide, a Bexar County, Texas, Inmate Dies
On October 19, 2017, 27-year-old Anthony Luna was in the booking area of Bexar County Jail in San Antonio, Texas, when a deputy discovered him in a bathroom stall attempting to hang himself. The deputy quickly intervened. Luna was given immediate medical attention and transported to Metropolitan Methodist Hospital. Luna died on Saturday at about 5:15 p.m., and the exact cause isn’t yet known. There will be an autopsy to make that determination.
One of the duties of jail personnel is to prevent custodial deaths. Certain procedures are required, so at-risk inmates don’t succeed in harming themselves or others. An investigation is always conducted when an inmate dies. Sometimes, if it is discovered that jail staff failed to make the required rounds to check the inmates, for instance, employees are fired. These oversights, if found to be contributing factors in an individual’s death, can lead to wrongful death lawsuits, which are filed by family members of the deceased.
Bexar County Jail has recently been under scrutiny because within a one-month period last year, four inmates died there. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards visited the jail after the first of the suicides, in a surprise inspection. They didn’t find any violations of jail standards at that time.
According to records, this is the third inmate death to occur in Bexar County Jail this year. They all occurred this month On October 3, authorities say a 36-year-old inmate died from apparent suicide. A 53-year-old inmate died of natural causes at the jail a few days later.
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