MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is looking into a 70-year-old inmate's death at the Shelby County Jail.
The inmate was identified as Thomas Earl Williams. TBI said Judicial District Attorney General Steve Mulroy asked the bureau to investigate the death on Aug. 22. ABC24 is looking to confirm the date of Williams' death.
The latest death of a Shelby County inmate comes as Sheriff Floyd Bonner is one of the leading candidates to become the next mayor of Memphis.
The number of inmate deaths in the jail system is high compared to other counties the size of Shelby County, and it’s happened with Sheriff Bonner in charge.
“Whenever someone is elected to public office, whatever happens on their watch belongs to them,” said long-time political consultant Susan Adler Thorp, who is doing consulting for mayoral candidate JW Gibson.
In 2022, there were 14 inmate deaths, the highest since Bonner took office in 2018. That includes the death of Gershun Freeman, whose family is calling for a federal investigation.
“In fairness, not all of the deaths at 201 Poplar are because of something that happened that was bad inside the jail,” Adler Thorp said.
News of Williams' death comes just one month after Bonner was named Tennessee’s Sheriff of the Year in July.
“You saw a lot of publicity from inside his campaign team. You saw it all over social media and in the news,” Adler Thorp said. “An inmate dies in the jail. The jail is run by the sheriff. That also happens on his watch...You're not going see any publicity generated by the Bonner campaign about this.”
