DOJ inspector general investigating death of inmate who died after he was pepper sprayed
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating the death of a federal inmate who died after he was pepper sprayed by prison guards.
Jamel Floyd, an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, died Wednesday morning after a scuffle with prison guards. Officials said officers pepper sprayed Floyd after he became disruptive and tried to break his cell door window with a metal object.
Floyd lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, officials said. It was not immediately clear if the pepper spray caused Floyd to lose consciousness or what may have caused his death. Officials said he did not die of COVID-19.
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Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced Thursday that his office is investigating the circumstances surrounding Floyd's death. He said no other information will be released until the investigation is complete.
Officials also did not say why Floyd was being disruptive, or whether he had health problems.
His mother, Donna Mays, told the Daily News that her son was suffering from diabetes and asthma – underlying health conditions she said prison guards were aware of.
“He died because of the mace," Mays told the paper. "You do not mace an asthmatic."
In 2016, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that permanently armed federal correctional officers with pepper spray. The law was introduced after a correctional officer in Pennsylvania was killed by an inmate in 2013.
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Floyd, 35, had been at the facility in Brooklyn since October 2019. New York prison records show he was transferred from Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where he was serving time for burglary convictions. He would've been eligible for parole in October.
Floyd died days after the federal Bureau of Prisons placed all of its facilities under a national lockdown amid civil unrest in cities across the country over the death of George Floyd. Officials said there's no indication the two men were related.
The death of George Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee, reignited racial tensions between police and the black community.
The lockdown, which officials said was a precautionary measure and wasn't prompted by inmates' actions, is the agency's most severe restrictions at its prisons in 25 years.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justice Department probing death of inmate who was pepper sprayed
