BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — Washington State Patrol detectives have found that Kitsap County Jail officers involved in the death of a mentally ill inmate after a violent struggle were not properly trained to use the restraint chair tied to the man’s homicide. The Kitsap Sun reports investigators with the Kitsap Critical Incident Response Team, led by the State Patrol, wrote that once Sean Howell was subdued on May 9, four officers pushed his head forward while strapping him into the restraint chair. Pushing a struggling person forward while strapping them down is not a technique recommended by the chair’s manufacturer. It is the action detectives said ultimately suffocated Howell. The leader of the corrections officer union declined to comment.
Probe: Kitsap jail inmate who died improperly subdued
