The Associated Press
TUMWATER — A prisoner at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center near Aberdeen has died of COVID-19.
The prisoner died Thursday at an area health care facility, and it is the first COVID-19-related death for an inmate at Stafford Creek, KIRO-TV reported.
Department of Corrections officials said due to the rising number of cases, the facility has restricted movement to limit any risk to exposure of the virus.
The facility continues to practice COVID-19 screening, testing and infection control to prevent the spread of the virus, officials said.
It is the fourth death of an inmate related to COVID-19 in the state. A state corrections officer has also died of COVID-19.
The death comes a day after the families of those behind bars protested outside the state capitol, asking for more inmates to be released in order to reduce the chances they would contract the virus.
Patrol car death
KENNEWICK — A 25-year-old man died in the back of a Kennewick patrol car after he was detained during a drug investigation, according to police.
The Tri-City Herald reported someone called Kennewick police at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday after seeing a man rolling around in a vehicle, according to Kennewick police. The caller believed he had used narcotics, and officers spotted him using drugs when they arrived, police said.
Officers started talking to him, then handcuffed and put him in the back of a patrol car while they investigated, police said. When officers checked on him, he was unconscious and not breathing, police said.
