STATE PRISON INMATE DEATH INVESTIGATED

(CUMBERLAND, MD) -- Maryland State Police are investigating the death of a state prison inmate who was found in his cell last night in a maximum-security prison in Allegany County.

The 57-year-old male inmate is not being identified until family can be notified by Division of Correction officials. He was an inmate at the North Branch Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md.

Maryland Division of Correction officials contacted investigators from the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit and asked that they respond to the prison last night due to the circumstances surrounding the suspicious death of an inmate. State Police homicide investigators responded and are continuing the investigation, with assistance from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigative Unit.

The preliminary investigation indicates that shortly after 6:00 p.m. yesterday, an inmate in Housing Unit 3 approached a correctional officer and said something was wrong with this cell mate. Correctional officers responded to the cell and found the inmate unresponsive. Emergency care was provided and the inmate was transported to the Western Maryland Regional Health Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The body of the deceased inmate has been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. Investigators are awaiting autopsy results to positively identify the cause and manner of death.