Police investigating death of 23-year-old inmate at Monroe prison

MONROE, Wash. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of an inmate at the Monroe Correctional Complex.


The Daily Herald reports (http://goo.gl/s2CJvz ) 23-year-old Edward Kemp Jr. was found unresponsive Saturday morning in his cell.

Prison spokeswoman Susan Biller says corrections officers performed CPR but medics pronounced him dead when they arrived.

Biller says Kemp entered the state prison system in March 2015 on a conviction of assault with a firearm after an SUV with children inside was fired upon in Burien. Kemp was assigned to a medium security unit of Monroe prison in early July.

Monroe Police Department spokeswoman Debbie Willis says preliminary findings suggest his death was related to drug use. She says police will try to determine how drugs could have gotten to Kemp inside the prison.