Suicide: Arson suspect nods to officer before his catwalk plunge.
By LISA DEMER and JAMES HALPIN
Anchorage Daily News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An inmate at the Anchorage jail killed himself Monday night by climbing onto the railing of a second-floor catwalk and diving head-first onto the floor below, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Charles McKinney, 46, had been in custody on an arson charge since July 15, the day he allegedly lit his room at the Motel 6 in Midtown on fire. Less than an hour after the fire broke out, McKinney, of Elizabeth, N.J., asked a passer-by in the parking lot of the nearby Golden Corral restaurant to call police, saying he had just set the room on fire.
The suicide took place at about 7:30 p.m. Monday in a mod, a two-level cell block with a common area whose population can range up to about 45 inmates, said Alan Bailey, special assistant to the state Department of Corrections commissioner. The inmates had just been released from their cells for free time under the supervision of a single officer -- a standard ratio -- when McKinney took his plunge, he said.
As others were watching TV and walking around, McKinney walked up the stairs to the second-floor catwalk, about 12 or 15 feet up, and nodded to the corrections officer on duty on his way, said troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters.
“He climbed up on top of the railing and dove off,” she said. “No indication that anything was wrong, didn’t say a word to anybody. His actions weren’t erratic or anything. He was just being normal. And then he dove off the balcony.”
Bailey said the officer realized what was happening but was too far away to stop it. McKinney died at the scene after officers tried to treat his injuries, he said.
“Unfortunately this has occurred within Alaska Department of Corrections before,” Bailey said. “I think persons who are in such distress find ways, and there’s numerous ways to commit suicide in such confined areas.”
Counseling is available from mental health clinicians for prisoners who appear troubled, Bailey said, but McKinney was in the general population -- meaning he was not on suicide watch.
Peters said an autopsy has been ordered, and the investigation into McKinney’s death is continuing.
Copyright 2008 SCRIPPS Howard Publications