Howard inmate, 24, accused of robbery, an apparent suicide

The Baltimore Sun

A 24-year-old inmate accused of robbing a 74-year-old woman at knifepoint in her Columbia kitchen apparently hanged himself with a bedsheet at the Howard County Detention Center on Wednesday evening, police said yesterday.

Brandon I. Reed was the fourth inmate to die by hanging and the fifth inmate who has died at the facility since April 2005. Before that, there had not been a suicide at the detention center since 1999.

In response to the first two hangings and an inmate's death from an acute lung infection after a suicide attempt, detention center Director Melanie C. Pereira created a suicide prevention plan that mostly formalized existing practices.

In addition, brass handles were removed from bunk beds and cages were taken off of sprinkler heads. Inmates could easily affix ropes or bedsheets to those items.

All corrections officers were trained on the use of defibrillators, and Pereira increased the frequency of interviews with Spanish-speaking inmates and those who exhibited behavior problems. Cameras also were installed in the medical facility.

Howard County detectives declined to say what item Reed, of Green Mountain Circle in Columbia, tied his bedsheet to, said Pfc. Jennifer Reidy, a spokeswoman for police.

On Wednesday, corrections officers segregated Reed, who was indicted this week on burglary and assault charges, from other prisoners because of a dispute with an inmate, Reidy said. Corrections officers checked on him every 30 minutes and found him unresponsive in his cell at 6:45 p.m., she said.

Reidy said that corrections officers attempted to revive him with a defibrillator. He was pronounced dead at Howard County General Hospital.

Pereira was able to make all of the changes outlined in the plan except for removing cages from all windows, which she determined would pose a security risk.

County Executive Ken Ulman will review the results of police and corrections department investigations into Reed's death, Ulman's spokesman said.

Reed had been held at the detention center on a $75,000 bail. Police alleged that he had stolen a wallet from the victim's kitchen table during the June 29 robbery. They said he then retrieved a small dog he had tied to a utility box, set off on a nearby footpath and removed $20 from the wallet. He then threw two knives and the wallet into the bushes, according to court records.

Police said they recovered the wallet after Reed led them to it. Reed had no previous criminal record in Maryland, according to court records.

melissa.harris@baltsun.com

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