Rachel Thompson, the executive assistant and public information officer at United States Penitentiary Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, attached a press release regarding the June 21 death of Khaalid Frederick, 37, following an email inquiry today.
Frederick was sentenced in February in the aftermath of a November, 2015 standoff in Roanoke Rapids where he held officers at bay on Jefferson Street for nearly four hours.
Thompson declined to answer electronically submitted questions on the case, one which asked whether foul play was suspected and another on whether preliminary results of an autopsy had been filed.
In the June 22 press release, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said at approximately 9:30 a.m. on June 21, Frederick requested medical assistance from within his assigned cell.
“Lifesaving measures were initiated by staff. Local emergency medical staff were called and provided medical treatment but he was subsequently pronounced dead by EMS at 10:22 a.m. at USP Hazelton,” the press release said. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified and is investigating. The next of kin have been notified. At no time was the public in danger.”
A letter contained in the federal court record to United States District Court Judge Louise W. Flanagan in New Bern from USP Hazelton Complex Warden Joe Coakley says Frederick was found unresponsive in the prison’s special housing unit. “The cause of death is undetermined at this time and the results of an autopsy are pending.”
Coakley noted Frederick was received at the complex on March 6.
The letter was also forwarded to the Mid-Atlantic Regional director, the chief probation officers for the Eastern District of North Carolina as well as United States North Carolina Eastern District Attorney John Stuart Brice.
Flanagan sentenced Frederick to 80 months and three years of supervised released.
Frederick was federally indicted in April of 2016 for having been previously convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment for more than a year while possessing a firearm and ammunition.
