Suspect in fatal New Sewickley shootings found dead in Beaver County Jail
A New Sewickley Township man charged with killing his mother and aunt was found dead in Beaver County Jail Friday morning.
Jail staff found Benjamin Selby, 43, unresponsive in an isolation cell around 8:30 a.m.; Selby was “slumped over with bodily fluids under his wheelchair,” said Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier.
Selby used a wheelchair “probably due to a motorcycle accident a number of years ago,” Lozier said, adding the man had refused to be placed in a jail bunk and was “choosing to sleep in the wheelchair.” Selby had been in a cell by himself for at least seven days, where he was required to be observed every 15 minutes, Lozier said.
The man was placed in isolation, Lozier said, “because he was refusing transport and treatment, including refusing to take medicine.”
More: Man charged with homicide after fatal New Sewickley shootings
“His appearing to sleep in the wheelchair wasn't unusual,” Lozier said. When jail guards checked on him around 8:30 a.m., they noticed the fluids under Selby’s wheelchair and contacted medical personnel, who then called Beaver County Sheriff's deputies and EMS "to perform life-saving measures, including attempted defibrillation," said Lozier.
He was pronounced dead just after 10 a.m. Friday.
Selby faced two counts of criminal homicide following a June 24 shooting along Klein Road in New Sewickley that left two women dead – Mary Lihosit, 65, of Texas, and Delores Selby, 71, of New Sewickley. The victims were Selby's mother and aunt. His case will be dismissed Monday morning.
The Beaver County Detective Bureau is handling an investigation into Selby’s death, and the Beaver County Coroner’s Office is performing an autopsy with results expected within eight weeks. Lozier said there were “no obvious signs” of trauma, self-inflicted wounds, or drug use when responders found Selby.
“This investigation will take a while, because we have to hear from everybody,” Lozier said. “We also have to get (Selby’s) medical records, because he’s only been in jail for two weeks as of (Saturday). We don't even have all of his medical records for his current treatments, let alone his historic treatments.”
Selby’s death marks the first time in about two years that an incarcerated person has died inside Beaver County Jail, Lozier said.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Suspect in fatal New Sewickley shootings found dead in Beaver County Jail
