FORT WORTH, Texas — A female inmate being held at the Tarrant County Jail died on Monday morning, the latest in a string of inmates to die at the jail.
Detention officers found the woman unresponsive in her cell on Monday morning, officials say. Around 9:15 a.m., she was taken to the medical area where officials say she refused any medical treatment and asked to return to her cell.
Just before 11 a.m., officials say staff responded to a medical emergency as 35-year-old Chasity Bonner had become unresponsive.
John Peter Smith Hospital staff began life-saving measures and gave her Narcan twice, officials say. MedStar took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Bonner had been in custody since May, 16, officials said. She was being held on a warrant stemming from a charge of theft of property between $2,500 and $30,000 and a parole violation from the North Richland Hills Police Department.
Her cause of death will be released by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner.
The death will be reviewed by the jail staff, the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office, JPS medical staff, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the Texas Attorney General's Office and an outside law enforcement agency, officials said.
Since Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017, more than 60 people have died in the Tarrant County Jail. Some activists have been calling for his resignation. National Institutes of Health data shows the number of deaths has exceeded the national average in each of the last four years.
Tarrant County has spent more than $2 million settling lawsuits related to deaths at the jail in the past year.
