Report: Bristol County Inmate Committed Suicide

Newly revealed information indicates that a Worcester man awaiting trial in a convenience store shooting took his own life while being held at the Bristol County House of Corrections in December.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette is reporting that 21-year-old Jaiquan Harris, who was being held on multiple charges stemming from an April 2013 incident in which he shot a Worcester store clerk in the eye during a holdup, committed suicide by hanging himself in the Dartmouth prison on December 21.

Harris was placed in the facility at the request of his court-appointed lawyer, Donald A. Brisson of New Bedford. Court records include a handwritten letter from December 10 that appears to be from Harris, stating he had been threatened and didn't feel safe at Bristol County, and that he wanted Brisson removed from his case.

Brisson said his client "should have been kept safe from himself, and he wasn't."

"Everyone at the Bristol County Sheriff's Office is sadden when an inmate takes his own life. We continue to send prayers to the family of the deceased," Jonathan Darling, spokesman for Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hogson told WBSM News in a statement.

Darling said the investigation is ongoing.