Oklahoma jail inmate dies from self-inflicted gunshot wound

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 10:39 am CDT, Wednesday, July 25, 2018

PAWNEE, Okla. (AP) — Authorities in northern Oklahoma say a 26-year-old woman fatally shot herself with a handgun she apparently sneaked into her jail cell.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that Brittany Weide DeVerges was found unresponsive in a detoxification cell at the Pawnee County Jail on Tuesday. Investigators say a handgun was lying on her stomach and she had a gunshot wound to the chest.

DeVerges was arrested at 3 a.m. for public intoxication and possession of paraphernalia and placed in the cell. Investigators say deputies observed her at 10:30 a.m. and decided to leave her in the cell a while longer.

Deputies found her 90 minutes later with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The OSBI says evidence indicates DeVerges snuck the weapon into the jail and detectives are investigating how.

Read more: Link to source

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[ADX]

1. Someone (plural) fucked up, big-time...

...how did the arresting officer AND the jail detention staffer(s) all miss a loaded firearm concealed on an incoming inmate?

Clown shoes, all around...

[ret5hd]

2. They didn't miss a gun. There aren't any clown shoes...

except on the people that believe this story.

[Coventina]

4. As soon as I saw the shot was to her chest, with the gun then placed on her chest?

Nope.

Self-inflicted my butt!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. The excerpt doesn't say that. . . . nt

[Coventina]

12. OK, the gun was on her stomach.

I don't believe the story, not for a minute.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. She fell on it. . . . nt

[Coventina]

15. Riiiight. n/t

[ADX]

6. Maybe, maybe not...

...but I could post at least 10 different links for stories of women concealing guns in body cavities/orifices.

It happens a lot more than people would think...

[EX500rider]

17. So what do you think happened?

The cops arrested her, put her in a cell and then one decided to kill her for fun and opened the cell and shot her and left the gun? Seems more unlikely then her having a gun well concealed or a poor search.

[dalton99a]

9. Famous case:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-last-interrogation/

The circumstances behind this video took place on 19 December 2003, when 47-year-old Ricardo Alfonso Cerna was stopped for a traffic violation at about 9:30 A.M. in Muscoy (a residential suburb of San Bernardino County, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles). Cerna fled the scene (in his car and then on foot) before shooting the pursuing officer, sheriff’s deputy Michael Parham, twice in the abdomen. (Deputy Parham survived the shooting.) Cerna was soon arrested by San Bernardino police and taken to sheriff’s headquarters on Third Street, where he was placed in an interview room just before 11 A.M. in preparation for questioning by Bobby Dean, head of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s homicide unit.

When Dean stepped out of the room briefly to speak with a detective in the hallway, Cerna pulled the .45-caliber handgun out of his pants and shot himself in the head. Evidently a chain of mistakes led to Cerna, a shooting suspect, being taken into custody without either the arresting officers or the booking officers discovering he had a large, heavy handgun concealed on his person

[BigMin28]

3. So they found paraphernalia

But not a loaded weapon? Yeah, right. That only makes sense to someone that lacks critical thinking skills. You know, like a trump supporter.

[2naSalit]

7. +1

And her skin tone was....

[Crabby Appleton]

18. kind of pinkish tan

Name: DEVERGES, BRITTANY
Gender: F
Race: W
DOB: 7/21/1992
Height: 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
Weight: 140 lb (64 kg)
Hair Color: BRO
Eye Color: BLU
Inmate ID: 1241403

[2naSalit]

19. Huh.

Why do I feel like that's unusual?

[Coventina]

5. Time for this again....

[Iggo]

8. Wow.

Smell Test: Fail.

[markses66]

10. The well-trained constabulary

Great fucking job, guys.

[Bayard]

13. Cha!

And no one heard this gun shot at the time?!

[marble falls]

20. Odd turn of phrase ...

"The OSBI says evidence indicates DeVerges snuck the weapon into the jail and detectives are investigating how."

Sounds like: I don't know how you did it, I only know you did it, otherwise, it sure looks like we did it.

[appalachiablue]

21. Very sad and kinda suspicious...

- 3 Years Later, The Federal Government Still Hasn’t Counted Sandra Bland’s Death - HUFFPOST, July 13, 2018.

WASHINGTON ― Three years after the death of 28-year-old Sandra Bland highlighted jail deaths in the United States, the federal government still hasn’t formally counted her death nor the hundreds of other fatalities that occurred in American jails in 2015. The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics has been counting jail deaths since 2000 and had been releasing jail death data on a yearly basis since 2011. But the office hasn’t done so since December 2016 ― just before President Donald Trump took office ― when the bureau published the final jail death numbers from 2014.
Now, halfway through 2018, a BJS official tells HuffPost that the government doesn’t plan to release new final 2015 data until December 2018.

The last report found that more people ― 372 ― committed suicide in jail in 2014 than in any year since 2000 and that American jails in 2014 had the highest suicide rate on record. It also found that more inmates ― 1,053 ― died in jail in 2014 than in any year since 2007 and that American jails had their highest mortality rate since 2007. Preliminary 2015 data released at the same time indicated the jail death numbers in the year Bland died may be equally disturbing. BJS’ incomplete data for 2015 ― based on reports from 97 percent of jails ― listed 1,069 jail deaths, including 364 suicides. That would make 2015 one of the deadliest years on record, with the highest number of jail deaths since at least 2007 and (besides 2014) the highest number of suicides on record.

HuffPost’s jail deaths project, published two years ago, aimed at counting deaths that occurred in American jails in the year following Bland’s July 13, 2015 death. As part of the project, HuffPost identified 15 facilities with a death rate of more than double the national average. Some experts say if a jail has an unusually high death rate, it can be an indication of lax oversight and the need for reform. Several of the facilities identified as part of HuffPost’s analysis came under public scrutiny, and others brought in corrections experts for advice on anti-suicide measures..More, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/3-years-later-the-federal-government-still-hasn%e2%80%99t-counted-sandra-bland%e2%80%99s-death/ar-AAA0VU8, https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016210784