Second inmate dies in Los Angeles County jail in two days, officials say

Authorities are investigating the death of a second inmate in as many days in a Los Angeles County jail.

A deputy doing a security check Wednesday night at the Inmate Reception Center — the intake facility attached to Men’s Central Jail — found a man unresponsive and alone in his cell, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Officials said the man, whose name was not released, suffered from an “unknown medical condition.” Deputies and paramedics attempted to resuscitate him before he was pronounced dead.

The incident came a day after another inmate death at Men’s Central Jail, near downtown L.A.

Juan Correa Jr., 31, “went into distress” after he was pepper-sprayed by deputies who were trying to break up a fight between the man and his cellmate, authorities said.

Officials said Correa attacked his cellmate and refused orders to stop fighting. Deputies then used pepper spray on him, removed him from the cell and put him in handcuffs, said Deputy Trina Schrader, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman.

While Correa was in the shower washing off the pepper spray, she said, he went into distress. Deputies performed CPR and called the medical staff. Paramedics responded and pronounced him dead.

Coroner’s officials have deferred a ruling on Correa’s cause of death pending the results of toxicology and other tests.

Correa was arrested in November 2015 by Long Beach police. He pleaded no contest in June to one count of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to a year in jail, according to Los Angeles Superior Court records.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

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