SC police officials investigate Chester County inmate suicide in jail on Christmas
South Carolina law enforcement agents are investigating after an inmate in the Chester County jail committed suicide on Christmas Day.
Gerald Vincent Williams Jr., 36, died at Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Chester, said Terry Tinker, Chester County Coroner.
Williams committed suicide, said Tinker and Grant Suskin, spokesman for the Chester County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office runs the jail.
Williams was found unresponsive in his cell Friday afternoon, Suskin said. Deputies, Chester Fire Department, and EMS officials were called to the scene.
The State Law Enforcement Division and the coroner’s office are investigating the death.
No manner of death has been released.
Williams had been involved with a shooting and standoff with police, court and jail records showed. He was arrested Nov. 21 after a Fort Lawn standoff with deputies where shots were fired, according to SLED. No one was injured.
Williams had been in the jail without bond after a South Carolina Circuit Court judge denied bail and revoked bail from an earlier arrest, court records show. Williams had been free on bond from an August arrest on charges of domestic violence, deputies said.
Police charged Williams from the November shooting incident and standoff with resting arrest with a deadly weapon, domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, records show.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 9:47 AM with the headline "SC police officials investigate Chester County inmate suicide in jail on Christmas."
