An 18-year-old Alachua County Jail inmate was found choked with a bed sheet tied around his neck Friday afternoon in an apparent suicide, according to the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.
Shawn Carter's suicide would be the first the jail has seen in about three years, said Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Keith Faulk.
A patrolling sergeant found Carter at about 12:30 p.m. hanging from a bar on his cell window.
Though he was found with a pulse, medical personnel were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead at 1:37 p.m.
Though Carter had talked with mental health officials in the past, he was not on the jail's suicide watch. Carter had been alone in his cell for a little less than two weeks as punishment for fighting on New Year's Eve.
Faulk said a guard picked up Carter's lunch tray at about 11:40 a.m. and asked how he was doing, to which Carter replied that everything was fine and gave a thumbs-up. Carter was first arrested on counts of grand theft and larceny but was living in a Lake City halfway house on probation.
After he was charged with battery in December, Carter was transferred to the Alachua County Jail.
