Thursday, August 27, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
Despite Kevin P. Burkey’s expression of suicidal thoughts at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he was arrested on a charge of theft of dangerous drugs, the hospital police officer who took Burkey to Mahoning County jail Sunday did not tell the booking deputy about Burkey’s suicidal statements, according to Sheriff Jerry Greene, who oversees the jail.
On Wednesday, the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office identified Burkey, 50, of Lowellville, as the county jail inmate who died in an apparent suicide in his cell Tuesday afternoon.
The office did not issue a formal ruling or precise cause of death.
The coroner’s office, however, reported that Burkey, of Center Road, was found unbound, hanging by his neck from a bed sheet fashioned into a noose, with no suicide note found at the scene.
An autopsy conducted Wednesday by Dr. Joseph S. Ohr, forensic pathologist and deputy county coroner, found no other injuries on the body.
Burkey, who was not on suicide watch in the jail, was last seen alive at 11:40 a.m. Tuesday and found dead at 1:04 p.m. that day.
Greene said it appeared Burkey hanged himself.
Tuesday morning’s Vindicator and Vindy.com contained the story of the circumstances of Burkey’s arrest, including the fact a man on top of the hospital parking deck, later identified as Burkey, said he was upset because he had gone to the emergency room and he felt the staff would not treat him for the pain he was experiencing.
Reports said Burkey was talked out of harming himself and taken back to the emergency room by an ambulance that was followed by a cruiser.
Despite that report, the hospital police report received at the jail booking department said Burkey was arrested on the theft charge, but it said nothing about his suicidal expressions at the hospital, Greene said.
Burkey expressed no suicidal thoughts to the jail nurse, who performed the medical screening, or to the booking deputy, Greene said.
Greene, however, said an internal affairs investigation into this matter has been launched within the jail.
Burkey was jailed under $15,000 bond after his initial municipal court appearance Monday.
A more-detailed Mercy Health Systems police report in the municipal court file said officers were called to a St. Elizabeth parking deck Sunday morning for a possible suicide.
The man, identified as Burkey, was talked out of harming himself and taken by an ambulance, followed by a police cruiser, back to the emergency department, where police said they found vials of anesthetic.
Police identified the part of the hospital the vials came from and said they watched video showing Burkey going into a room at the lab and taking them.
After being treated in the emergency department, Burkey was taken to the jail.
Saying she didn’t know the details of the incident, Sally Hammel, a hospital spokeswoman, declined to comment late Wednesday, except to say hospital police are cooperating with the sheriff’s investigation.