Teen DeKalb Jail Inmate's Death Apparently Suicide: Officials

DECATUR, GA — A 19-year-old in DeKalb County Jail inmate who died on Thursday appears to have committed suicide, according to the sheriff's office.

Authorities say Willie Whonya Lowery, Jr., of Decatur, had been in custody at the jail since Jan. 4 on robbery charges. Since apparently attempting suicide on Feb. 23, he had been held at Grady Memorial Hospital, according to DeKalb County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cynthia Williams.

His death is being investigated by the sheriff's office's Office of Professional Standards, Williams said.

"Instances of inmate death are never routine and we investigate each situation very thoroughly," Sheriff Jeffrey L. Mann said in a news release. "While preliminary reports indicate that no one else was involved, we will rely on the investigation to determine the facts of the case. At this point, however, we believe that our trained staff performed as required and that we did all that we could to try to assist Mr. Lowery.

"We offer our condolences to his family and look forward to sharing the results of our investigation with them so that they can have closure after this unfortunate tragedy."

According to sheriff's office records, Lowery had previously been jailed last February by DeKalb County Schools Police on disorderly conduct and obstruction of an officer charges and last May by MARTA Police on charges of evasion of MARTA fare, illegally altering a token and obstruction of an officer.

He'd been jailed in August 2016 by DeKalb County Police on charges of simple assault and obstruction of an officer.

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