Erick Cano-Castellanos
Erick Cano-Castellanos, 39, died on June 30, 2022, while held at the Durham Jail in Durham, North Carolina. The Durham County Sheriff's Office said staff found him in his cell after a suicide attempt and he died at a local hospital, and the sheriff asked the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate alongside the review required by NCDHHS. A later News & Observer report, drawing on the sheriff's death report, the state medical examiner's autopsy and a state jail inspector's investigation, says he was found hanging from his bunk with a bed sheet, and that detention officers missed required supervision rounds on his cell section in the hours before and on the day of his death. The Sheriff's Office has since introduced new supervision tracking.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). The Durham County Sheriff's Office says he died by apparent suicide after a suicide attempt, and a state inspection found that detention officers missed required supervision rounds on his cell section before his death.
Reported by: Durham County Sheriff's Office (the agency that held him); N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (medical examiner or coroner); state jail inspector's investigation (outside investigators).