Advertisement

San Diego inmate’s death is already the county jail’s second of 2024

Handcuffs hang from a railing inside a jail facility
Handcuffs at San Diego Central Jail, where a 24-year-old man was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Share via

A 24-year-old man died Tuesday afternoon after he was found unresponsive in his San Diego Central Jail cell, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday.

Brandon Andrew Yates of San Diego was the second person in Sheriff’s Department custody to die this year after he was found around 1:35 p.m. during a safety check, said Lt. Joseph Jarjura in a news release.

Yates had been arrested a day earlier on suspicion of burglary, Jarjura said.

Medical staff and deputies attempted lifesaving measures by performing CPR, using a defibrillator and administering naloxone, which can counter the effects of an opioid overdose.

Advertisement

A man who was shot and killed early Wednesday in Hawthorne was remembered by his daughter as a loving father.

He was pronounced dead by a hospital doctor just before 2:15 p.m.

The county Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy .

The Citizen’s Law Enforcement Review Board was notified of the man’s death, and the sheriff’s homicide unit will conduct an investigation, officials said.

“We extend our sympathies to the Bach family and those affected by his passing,” sheriff’s officials said in a news release. “A sheriff’s family liaison officer will support the family as they deal with their loss.”

Defense attorneys for Rebecca Grossman are seeking to shift the blame for the deaths of two young boys to former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson.

Eric Wolf, 33, the first person to die in Sheriff’s Department custody this year, was found on the morning of Jan. 6 in medical distress inside his cell. He was pronounced dead roughly a half hour later.

Advertisement

Thirteen people died in Sheriff’s Department custody last year.

In 2021, state officials released an audit reporting that 185 people died in Sheriff’s Department jail custody between 2006 and 2020 — the highest death rate among large California counties.

This story originally appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Advertisement