A 40-year-old inmate at the Tarrant County jail died Monday after experiencing a medical emergency in his cell, officials said Tuesday.
His cellmate noticed he was in distress and alerted authorities, according to a written statement from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. Jail personnel began life-saving measures, and medical staff from John Peter Smith Hospital continued treatment after arriving at the jail.
The unidentified man was taken to JPS Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the sheriff’s office.
He had been booked into the jail on June 14 after River Oaks police arrested him on a charge of violating a bond or protective order, according to the sheriff’s office.
During the jail’s standard booking process, officials said, the man refused to cooperate with or consent to a medical assessment. Jail personnel cannot force an inmate to provide medical history or comply with a medical evaluation, the sheriff’s office said.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the man’s cause of death and release his identity.
The death appears to be at least the second in-custody death reported at the Tarrant County Jail this year. John Barr, 36, was found unresponsive in his cell in April and later pronounced dead at John Peter Smith Hospital.
Tarrant County reported six in-custody deaths in 2025, down from nine in both 2024 and 2023, according to the county’s annual jail report.
The sheriff’s office said all in-custody deaths are investigated and reviewed by jail staff, the agency’s criminal investigations division, the medical examiner’s office, an outside law enforcement agency, JPS medical staff, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.