John Edward Hummel
John Edward Hummel was 69 years old when he died on September 22, 2012, at the Marion County Jail in Florida. Before that, he was taken to The Vines hospital for a suicide-risk evaluation, and the Gainesville Sun reported that he was discharged from the hospital back to police custody the next day. The newspaper reported that jail staff did not place him on suicide watch, and he died after jumping from a second-story railing at the jail. An autopsy ruled his death a suicide and listed multiple blunt force injuries as the cause. In 2015, the Florida Board of Medicine fined the psychiatrist who discharged him $5,000 for medical malpractice.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). The autopsy attributes his death to multiple blunt force injuries from a jump from a second-story railing, and the record says jail staff did not place him on suicide watch after a hospital suicide-risk evaluation.
Reported by: autopsy.