Jail inmate commits suicide

The Spokane County Jail was locked down for five hours Friday afternoon after an inmate apparently committed suicide. “He was in a cell all by himself,” said Sgt. Joe Peterson of the Spokane Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit. “There’s no question it was self inflicted.” The man, who was not identified, used bed sheets to hang himself, Peterson said. The death was discovered at 1 p.m., which launched the lockdown. Normally a suicide investigation at the jail would be headed up by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, but the Police Department was asked to take it over even though no jail staff was involved, Peterson said. “We’re starting some new protocol,” he said. The investigation into the death is nearly complete, said Peterson.