In Upper Marlboro Maryland,the death of a 19-year-old found slumped in his cell a day after he was jailed on charges of running over and killing a police officer has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Monday.The Maryland Medical Examiner ruled Monday that Ronnie White's death in Prince George's County Correctional Center the previous day was from asphyxiation and strangulation.
Maryland State Police and the FBI are investigating the death. The FBI is focusing on possible civil-rights violations.
White was charged with first-degree murder in the death Friday of 39-year-old Prince George's County Cpl. Richard Findley during a traffic stop.
A lawyer representing the family of Ronnie L. White, slain in his jail cell after being charged with killing a Prince George's County police officer, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and said White's death was an ominous indicator of serious misconduct inside the county detention system.
"This did not happen on some dark, abandoned, lonely road. This happened in broad daylight, in the custody of county officials," attorney Bobby G. Henry Jr. said at a news conference this morning. "Everyone who has someone or knows someone who is in the county correctional facility should have a problem with that."
Check out video from the article by Aaron C. Davis, Debbi Wilgoren and Rosalind S. Helderman Washington Post Staff Writers at washingtonpost.com