Pima County jail faces 2nd inmate suicide in a week

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Pima County jail inmate has taken his own life, making it the second suicide there in a week.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department says corrections officers doing rounds discovered 40-year-old Amin Shaheed Muhammad Ali unconscious in his cell Sunday afternoon.

Corrections officers and the jail’s medical staff attempted life-saving measures but he was pronounced dead.

Authorities say he died by strangulation using a bed sheet. There were no signs of foul play or of anyone else’s involvement.

Officials at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex say officers had conducted a security check 10 minutes earlier and saw nothing amiss.

Ali was in custody for charges of introducing contraband into a corrections facility.

This death occurred five days after another inmate, 50-year-old Hugh Gillespie Burford, died in a similar manner in a cell.

Investigations into both deaths remain ongoing.