Dayvion Blake, 23, was killed at the Fulton County Jail Thursday following an inmate dispute that led to stabbings. The sheriff’s department said Blake and three other inmates were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with stab wounds. One additional inmate was stabbed and treated at the jail by medical staff.
According to the sheriff’s department, Blake died at 3:29 p.m. Thursday.
For most deaths, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat blames “dangerous” jail conditions.
“The recent outbreak of violence at the Fulton County Jail is of grave concern,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it is not surprising considering the long-standing, dangerous overcrowding and the crumbling walls of the facility that are literally being crafted into makeshift weapons that inmates use to attack each other and staff.”
Blake’s death is the second in less than a week and the fifth since the end of July at the detention facility.
On Saturday, Aug. 26, a detention officer on dinner rounds at the jail found Samuel Lawrence, 24, unresponsive in his jail cell.
Lawrence had been in the facility since Dec. 26, 2022 on a $30,000 bond for second-degree arson charges.
The Atlanta Police Department is investigating the stabbings and has not yet released the names and criminal charges of the inmates involved in the incident.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct autopsies on Blake and Lawrence.
Labat’s statement also referred to the need for a replacement facility:
“We have had an unfortunate series of deaths this year that range from natural causes, to pre-existing health conditions, to homicide,” he said. “To mitigate the violence and overcrowding, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is in constant negotiations with other detention facilities, including facilities out of state, to outsource inmates. In addition, we have been coordinating with other agencies to secure additional resources to assist with mass shakedowns and increase the cadence of these shakedowns in order to seize contraband. Since taking office on January 1, 2021, I have been very transparent about the urgent need for a replacement jail that uses smart technology and other common-sense cost-saving measures that will relieve the dangerous overcrowding, improve security, provide humane detainment and most importantly, save lives,.”
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into Fulton County jail conditions after Lashawn Thompson, 35, was found dead in a bedbug-infested cell in the county jail’s psychiatric wing.
Gerald Griggs, President of the Georgia NAACP, said the civil rights group is trying to conduct an independent investigation into the jail.
“There’s clearly something happening at the Fulton County Jail that needs to be rectified immediately,” said Griggs. “People that are pretrial detainees should be maintained with the utmost care because they are citizens who have merely been accused. You know, 90% of the people in the Fulton County Jail have not been convicted of anything. And so, for them to check into the Fulton County Jail and not check out is of grave concern to the NAACP.”
This story comes to The Georgia Sun through a reporting partnership with GPB a non-profit newsroom focused on reporting in Georgia.
