William James Shandore Dies in Bexar County Jail

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department, in San Antonio, Texas, filed a custodial death report with Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, regarding the in-custody death of William James Shandore. Mr. Shandore was only 34 years old at the time of his death. We provide in this post information obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“At approximately 1325 inmate Crozier, Brendan #826829 (AG12) was passing out water to each cell. At approximately 1329 hours, upon approaching cell AG26, he noticed inmate Shandore, William #841735 hanging and immediatley notified the Unit AG Dep. Adan Gonzalez #1635. At approximately 1329 hours, Dep. Gonzalez immediately initiated a CODE 1 via radio and immediately ran to inmate Shandore’s cell, observed him with noose (which appeared to have been made from a bedsheet) and hanging from the a vent above the sink. He cut him down with the rescue tool and began CPR. SERT Dep. Gustavo Vargas #3013 was one of the first responding personnel, who then took over CPR until UHS medical personnel arrived. At approximatley 1331 hours, UHS medical personnel took over and continued CPR and life saving measures until relieved by San Antonio Fire Department Medic #10 (SAFD). At approximately 1348 hours, SAFD arrived and continued CPR and life saving measures. At 1356, MDA #18 Dr. Saul pronounced inmate Shandore’s death via EMT Silva #2999”.

The report also indicates that the custody or incident occurred on February 10, 2021, and that Mr. Shandore passed away on February 19, 2021. Without regard to what happened to Mr. Shandore, generally, Texas jail inmates are entitled to receive reasonable medical and mental health care. They are also entitled to be protected from themselves, and known self-harm tendencies and/or factors. If a jailer shows deliberate indifference and/or objective unreasonableness toward such tendencies, and a person dies as a result, then the jailer, and possibly his or her employer, may be liable to certain surviving family members. These civil rights lawsuits are generally filed in federal court. Unfortunately, far too many cases have been filed relating to prisoner suicide.

Written By: Dean Malone

Dean Malone

Dean Malone is the founder of Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C., a jail neglect civil rights law firm. Mr. Malone earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA, and from Baylor University School of Law with a general civil litigation concentration. Mr. Malone served in several staff positions for the Baylor Law Review, including executive editor. Mr. Malone is an experienced trial lawyer, trying a number of cases to jury verdict and also handling arbitrations through final hearing. He heads the jail neglect section of his law firm, in which lawyers litigate cases involving serious injury and death resulting from jail neglect and abuse. Lawyers frequently refer cases to Mr. Malone due to his focus on this very complicated civil rights practice area.