The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE- Two corrections officers will be fired and four others suspended after the hanging death of an inmate, a corrections department spokesman said.
Another officer will be “departing” from employment, although those conditions have not been finalized, state Department of Corrections spokesman John Dipko said in a statement Friday.
The actions are a result of a department investigation into the death of 41-year-old Russell Lee Murray, who was found hanging by a bedsheet inside a janitor’s closet June 1 at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility.
A medical examiner’s report states the staff waited nine minutes before cutting Murray down and beginning resuscitation efforts, but an inmate claims more than 20 minutes passed before Murray was freed.
The inmate also said a guard ordered him to let go of Murray after he was found. Murray died at a hospital more than four hours later.
“Our employees are expected to respond quickly and in a safe way to life-threatening situations,” Dipko said. “We will not tolerate inappropriate actions by staff in our prison system.”
The statement did not name the officers or say whether the fired officers are the same two who have been on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the internal investigation.
There is also an ongoing criminal review of Murray’s death by the Milwaukee County district’s office.
Murray had been at the facility for violating terms of his probation on a 2001 conviction for first-degree sexual assault of a child, according to the medical examiner’s report. The day he was found hanging he had been told he would be transferred to finish his 15-year sentence for the conviction, the report shows.