After his cell was eaten alive by bedbugs, an investigation was launched

LaShawn Thompson, a 35-year-old man, died after being swallowed by insects and bed bugs at the US Penitentiary in Atlanta, his family’s lawyer told the US press on Thursday, April 13.

The prisoner was arrested last summer in Atlanta for a misdemeanor, convicted and committed to the Atlanta jail. He declared that he was suffering Schizophrenic, he was placed in the psychiatric ward of the prison.

Thompson’s family, who live in Alabama, didn’t know he was in jail until they got the call about his death. Only recently have prison records become available.

Conditions of detention unfit for a human being

During a press conference, Michael Harper, the lawyer for the family that decided to file the complaint, said: “The cell he was in was not even equipped to accommodate a sick animal. It is inexcusable and deplorable. The Washington Post.

Arguing that photographs prove the poor condition of the cell where he was held, the lawyer explains that the thirty-year-old’s body was covered in dirt and insects when he was found unconscious.

The medical examiner said it was a bed bug.

An inquest to determine the circumstances of death

The report said no one could say that no one went to the inmate’s cell before he was found unconscious and pronounced dead after several attempts at resuscitation.

Further, the post-mortem report confirms that the body was covered with insects and there were no internal injuries. The cause of death has not been determined at this time.

The victim’s family wants to know the cause of death and who is responsible for it. She also asks to close the prison.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat said in a statement that an investigation would be launched to shed light on the case, and that conditions at the jail were “dilapidated and rapidly eroding” and that another building would be needed.