Man dies after collapsing at Allegheny County Jail

A 26-year-old man died Sunday shortly after collapsing at Allegheny County Jail.

A jail spokesman said the man, later identified by family members as Gerald Thomas, exited his cell shortly after noon and asked other inmates for assistance before collapsing.

“A medical emergency was called, and life-saving measures were performed until medical (personnel) arrived on the unit,” said spokesman Jesse Geleynse.

Paramedics managed to get a pulse before transporting Thomas to UPMC Mercy. Jail officials learned shortly after 2 p.m. that he had died.

During a news conference Monday afternoon at Lighthouse Church in Pittsburgh’s St. Clair neighborhood, Thomas’ mother, Juana Saunders, said that neither she nor Thomas’ father were notified by the jail that their son had collapsed or died.

Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for the county, said Thomas’ brother was listed as his emergency contact and was notified by the hospital of the death shortly after it occurred.

In addition, she said that the jail’s chaplain contacted the brother, and when four members of Thomas’ family arrived at the jail Sunday afternoon, Warden Orlando Harper and members of his team met with them.

The county medical examiner’s office left messages with Saunders on Sunday afternoon, and she returned the call Monday morning, Downs said.

Saunders said she has not been provided any information about what happened or why her son died. She said she was not permitted by UPMC Mercy to see her son when she arrived there.

According to Thomas’ family, they learned from an anonymous person that he was taken to the hospital after he collapsed, hit his head and was unresponsive at the jail.

“It is strictly inhumane for a mother to go to the hospital and be refused to see her child,” said Brandi Fisher, the president of the Alliance for Police Accountability.

Brian Englert, the president of the corrections officers’ union at the jail, said that when Thomas collapsed, the facility was understaffed by 12 officers. Eighty-five corrections officers should have been working, he said.

He also noted that two medical emergencies occurred minutes apart on Sunday.

Englert said he could not comment on any specific information about what happened to Thomas.

As recently as last week, Englert spoke at the Jail Oversight Board meeting about the critical understaffing of both officers and medical staff at the jail and the potential dangers it can pose.

Geleynse said he could not comment on the staffing situation at the jail on Sunday.

Thomas is the second person to have died at the jail since the beginning of the year, and the eighth since July.

Ken Haber, Thomas’ defense attorney, said his client was being held at the jail on a technical probation violation.

According to court records, Thomas was on probation when he was pulled over by undercover officers in Pittsburgh’s Hill District for rolling through a stop sign on March 30.

They searched his car, and Thomas was charged with illegal gun possession, receiving stolen property and possession of marijuana.

Haber successfully filed a motion to suppress the evidence, alleging that the search was illegal, and Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani threw out the evidence. The district attorney’s office withdrew the charges on Jan. 27.

“We thought he was going to go home,” Haber said.

However, at a probation violation hearing on Feb. 17, Mariani said he would continue to pursue probation revocation based on the fact that Thomas was driving without a license, and because the officers who stopped him said they saw him put a gun in the glove box before they searched the car.

The judge said he would keep Thomas in jail and allow the parties to file briefs on the issue.

“It’s a really sad story,” Haber said. “I got to know him and really liked him.”