Documents: Inmate who died left unchecked for hours after missing breakfast

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - An inmate who died last month at the Al Cannon Detention Center went unchecked for hours before it was discovered he was unresponsive, according to an internal report.

The documents state that Quinn Connor “did not get up for breakfast” on Oct. 23 at around 7:30 a.m., which deputy Loraine Bray wrote “is a typical reaction to breakfast for this resident.”

Deputies noted twice that he had refused breakfast in the 80 days he had been incarcerated.

More than four hours later, at 11:50 a.m., another inmate checked up on Connor to see if he wanted his lunch tray and was unable to get him to respond. Bray was also unsuccessful at arousing him.

The 42-year-old was reported to have had a blanket over his head at the time “as he normally does throughout the day, especially when he is using his tablet,” documents state.

When multiple attempts to wake him failed, other inmates began CPR until medical personnel arrived. He was pronounced dead at 12:14 p.m.

Connor was arrested on Aug. 3 for failure to stop for blue lights and drug charges.

A cause of death has not yet been released. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is now investigating Connor’s death at the request of Sheriff Kristin Graziano.

His death is the second recorded at the jail this year. Julian Jenkins, 50, died in March a week after his arrest. He had been in the medical unit the entire time he was incarcerated.

Local leaders have previously called on the Department of Justice to investigate the Charleston County jail following a rash of several inmate deaths over the span of two years. The agency announced Thursday afternoon it would conduct a civil rights investigation into that jail as well as the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said there have been eight deaths at the Al Cannon Detention Center since 2022 and six known deaths at the Richland County Detention Center since February of 2022.

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