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| Md. inmate killed, coroner rules |
| By Baltimore Sun |
| Published: 05/28/2004 |
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A 51-year-old prison inmate's death at the Western Correctional Institute after officers forcibly removed him from his cell has been ruled a homicide by the Md. medical examiner's office. Ifeanya A. Iko, a Nigerian immigrant, died of asphyxiation, according to Karen V. Poe, spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. "We were not able to identify a specific injury that led to Mr. Iko's asphyxia," Poe said Thursday. Prison officials said Iko was found motionless in his cell at 4:30 p.m. April 30. He was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland, where he died 40 minutes later. Relatives of Iko said they suspected foul play. And several inmates wrote letters to The Sun saying they saw correctional officers severely beat Iko and spray him with a chemical or pepper spray on the day he died. Iko had been sent to prison in 1991 to serve a three-year sentence for drug distribution in Prince George's County, court records show. In 1992, he stabbed and bit a correctional officer while at the Eastern Correctional Institution and eventually received an additional 20-year sentence, records show. The announcement that Iko's death was a homicide was made one day after authorities with the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said they were broadening their investigation. On Wednesday, public safety department authorities asked Maryland State Police and investigators with the Allegany County state's attorney's office to assist the department's internal investigators. |
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