Inmate’s death under investigation

A Spokane County Jail inmate who died Sunday was injured when he arrived, but he may have suffered additional injuries in three fights with corrections officers, Sheriff Mark Sterk said Monday.

Benites Saimon Sichiro, 39, died about 2 p.m. Sunday after an unsuccessful surgery to stop internal bleeding. An autopsy had not been completed Monday.

Sterk said jail booking mug shots and photos obtained from a Spokane police detective show Sichiro “had obviously been in some type of an assault” before he arrived at jail Friday morning, shortly after midnight. The photos show a black eye, a bruised lip and facial swelling, as well as abrasions on his neck and groin.

Sichiro’s nephew, Katamichey Rudolph, said Sichiro fought with friends Wednesday “over some of his belongings that were stolen.”

But Sichiro seemed “fine” when he visited Rudolph and his wife at their home shortly before his arrest late Thursday night.

“He was fine,” Sisi Rudolph said. “All he got was a black eye and scrapes on his face. He came over and ate with us, and then he went into the garage to hang out.”

She said he went out for beer, and police arrested him at Jack’s Foods, 3019 E. Mission Ave.

Sichiro has two children, a 13-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son with his ex-wife, Mensiana Sichiro.

Sterk acknowledged that Sichiro may have been injured again when he struggled violently with corrections officers trying to help a nurse monitor his condition. The nurse asked officers to move Sichiro to a cell closer to her office about 6:50 a.m. Sunday when he showed signs of alcohol withdrawal, Sterk said.

In particular, the sheriff said, an officer kneed Sichiro twice in the torso when Sichiro tried to bite the officer’s arm.

“The deputy used two knee strikes to distract the inmate long enough for him to get his arm out of Mr. Sichiro’s mouth,” Sterk said. “We know that those two knee strikes did occur during that altercation. We don’t know that they were the cause of the injuries that caused his death.”

Officers also used a Taser stun gun on three occasions to try to control the inmate, the sheriff said.

Spokane police arrested Sichiro on warrants for criminal trespass, obstruction of justice and fourth-degree assault, all misdemeanors, according to Spokane police Lt. Dean Sprague. But Sichiro was also under investigation for alleged sexual assault of a girl, and authorities believe he may have been attacked by someone connected with the girl.

Police released little information about the sexual assault case, but Katamichey and Sisi Rudolph said detectives told them the alleged victim was 12.

“She looks older than me, but the investigator told us she’s only 12,” Sisi Rudolph said.

Although Spokane police are handling the sexual assault case, Sterk wants to know more about the physical assault on Sichiro.

“We’re concerned that, if he was injured prior to being booked into jail … we may have some kind of a homicide that we need to be looking at,” said Sterk, who asked the public to call (509) 242-TIPS if they have information.

On the other hand, he said, “If we’re involved in this and we caused these injuries, we want to make sure that we document them well and that they’re down on paper and the truth comes out about how we handled the situation.”

Sterk said his review of reports indicates that corrections officers used an appropriate level of force, “based on Mr. Sichiro’s behavior and the fact that he was fighting with them very, very violently.”

Officers used the Taser to subdue and handcuff Sichiro when they moved him to a cell nearer to the nurse’s office, Sterk said. The stun gun had to be placed directly against Sichiro’s skin because the darts didn’t work properly when they were fired at him.

Sterk said Sichiro had stuffed books or magazines down the front of his jail coveralls, apparently because he planned to fight with deputies. The padding may have prevented the Taser projectile from working, Sterk said.

Sichiro fell to the floor at the top of a stairway and resumed fighting, Sterk said. Officers then carried him the rest of the way, one on each arm and leg.

Officers placed Sichiro under the bunk in his new cell to give them time to leave before he could attack again, Sterk said.

But officers soon re-entered the cell when Sichiro climbed onto a desk and threatened to dive onto the concrete floor, he said, and the nurse asked deputies to strap Sichiro into a special restraint chair to keep him from hurting himself.

Sterk said officers were able to handcuff Sichiro by zapping him again with a Taser, but they couldn’t restrain his feet. Deputies applied another Taser jolt, but “he fought through that,” the sheriff said. “He wasn’t feeling the pain.”

Officers placed a hood over Sichiro’s head because he was spitting blood at them, Sterk said.

When they got Sichiro into the restraint chair, “he went unconscious,” Sterk said. Deputies and the nurse immediately checked Sichiro and administered CPR while waiting for an ambulance, he said.

Eight corrections officers were involved at different times in the confrontations with Sichiro. All were placed on routine administrative leave while detectives investigate the death.

Standard procedure calls for a Spokane Police Department detective to participate in the investigation, but Sterk said a Washington State Patrol detective has joined the probe at his request.

Because Spokane police arrested Sichiro, Sterk said, “I felt that it was important to have another pair of eyes on this investigation … to make sure we haven’t missed anything and to give our community a clear message that we are looking for everything that’s involved in this investigation.”