By Diana Hefley
Herald Writer
EVERETT — A fatal struggle in the Snohomish County Jail between corrections officers and an Everett man didn’t amount to a crime but it highlights the challenges of addressing the needs of people living with mental illness, the county’s prosecuting attorney has concluded.
Mark Roe won’t file criminal charges against the five corrections officers who struggled to restrain Bill Williams, 59, as he was being booked into the jail last year for investigation of shoplifting.
Williams first resisted being arrested by Everett police officers who had twice been summoned to a gas station for a man who shoplifted some cigarettes and later returned and took off with a six-pack of beer. By the time he was transported to the jail Williams was cooperative.
He struggled with staff there after being led to a room to change out of his street clothes. A corrections sergeant used a stun gun to subdue Williams.
Williams appeared to have trouble breathing and the sergeant called for a nurse. Before he was evaluated by medical staff, Williams seemed to recover. Corrections officers hauled him up, but he continued to resist being put into a cell. The sergeant again shocked him with a Taser. Finally, at least four corrections officers wrestled him into a cell. He was left on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind his back.
About a minute later, the sergeant reported that Williams quit breathing. Officers, jail nurses and Everett paramedics tried to revive him. Williams died after spending less than an hour in the jail.
An autopsy found that he died of a heart attack after suffering from “excited delirium,” a form of mania that follows severe physical agitation combined with combative or violent behavior. Episodes of excited delirium can be common among people living with severe mental illnesses.
“I have concluded my review of the tragedy and do not believe the custody officers involved did anything wrong. Mr Williams’ death appears to be the latest incidence of the ‘excited delirium’ phenomenon that has unfortunately taken the lives of several Snohomish County residents over the last couple of decades,” Roe wrote in a letter this week to the lead detective who investigated the Sept. 14 death.
Full story: Corrections officers won’t be charged in man’s death