Man accused of killing cop found strangled in cell
BY STEPHEN MANNING
Chicago Sun Times
 Ronnie White in a photo taken June 28. (AP Photo/Prince George’s County Department of Corrections) |
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — When jail guards checked on inmate Ronnie L. White at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, he was seated on the bunk in his cell, alert and alone.
But just 15 minutes later, guards checked again and found White slumped over on the floor next to his bed. He had been strangled.
Now federal and state authorities are trying to figure out how the 19-year-old prisoner could have been killed in the maximum security cell where he was being held on charges of killing a police officer. On Tuesday, officials focused their investigation on guards at the jail, which has a history of security lapses.
An attorney for White’s family said the young man’s attackers ''took it upon themselves to be both the judge, the jury and the executioner.’'
White’s death shocked and angered officials in Prince George’s County, 20 miles outside Washington, including County Executive Jack Johnson, who likened it to ''vigilante justice.’'
White, 19, was arrested early Saturday on charges of ramming a stolen pickup truck into police Cpl. Richard Findley. Findley had gotten out of his police cruiser Friday while trying to conduct a traffic stop on the truck. White allegedly struck him and dragged him for a short distance in the community of Laurel.
Johnson immediately moved to curb speculation that White’s death was the result of police officers seeking revenge, saying the slaying was ''unrelated to any act’’ by police.
Copyright 2008 Chicago Sun Times