Jail Inmate Died Due to Asphyxiation by Hanging, Autopsy Reports Indicate

A 46-year-old inmate awaiting trial on charges of killing two emergency room workers during a hospital shooting rampage died due to asphyxiation by hanging, according to autopsy results released Saturday.

Brad Powers Jr. died at UC San Diego Medical Center about 9:15 a.m. Friday. Deputy Coroner George Dickason said Saturday the coroner’s office likely would pronounce the death a suicide.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives will investigate the death because Powers was in custody when he died, and all jail-related deaths are investigated.

Powers was found hanging from a makeshift noose attached to the bars in his jail cell Oct. 5. He was jailed in lieu of $2.5 million bail and was awaiting trial for an April 14 shooting rampage at Mission Bay Hospital.

Efforts to resuscitate Powers were unsuccessful and he died in the UCSD Medical Center intensive care unit.

Doctors said he suffered irreversible brain damage due to oxygen loss.

“The physician met with the family on numerous occasions, and it was a joint decision with the family that there would be no heroics to keep him alive,” said hospital spokeswoman Eileen Callahan.

The district attorney has closed the case in the April 14 slayings of Debbie Burke, an emergency room nurse, and Edward Rooney, an emergency medical technician observer spending his first day at the hospital.

A bystander and a doctor were wounded and a nurse narrowly averted being hit when she ducked behind a desk as Powers allegedly sprayed the area with gunfire.

Authorities said Powers apparently was distraught over his father’s death earlier that day. Bradford Powers Sr., 75, died at Mission Bay Hospital while undergoing surgery for an aneurysm.