A man held in custody at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center died last weekend.
John Boos, 37, was found “unresponsive” in his cell by a sheriff’s deputy Saturday night (Sept. 21), prompting the deputy to call a medical emergency, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) announced on Monday (Sept. 23).
“Additional deputies and medical staff immediately responded to render aid,” the FCSO said in the news release. “Rescue was called and transported the inmate to the hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.”
Boos’s death is now under investigation by the Fairfax County Police Department, in keeping with the Sheriff Stacey Kincaid’s policy. The sheriff’s office says it notified the FCPD “immediately,” but the police department didn’t publicize that detectives from its Major Crimes Bureau were investigating until this morning (Wednesday).
Foul play isn’t suspected “preliminarily,” the police department said, though the local Office of the Chief Medical Examiner still has to conduct an autopsy.
According to the FCPD, Boos had been in custody at the county jail since Aug. 30. Court records indicate that Boos, a Fairfax Station resident, was facing assault and strangulation charges for an incident involving a family member. Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court had a review hearing for the case scheduled for Oct. 22.
Fairfax County Chief Public Defender Dawn Butorac, whose office was representing Boos, says he had experienced mental health challenges, though it’s unclear whether that had any connection to his death.
“This is a clear example of why individuals that are severely mentally ill should not be in jail and should be in a hospital instead,” Butorac said in a statement to FFXnow. “However, our system does not prioritize treatment seeking instead to punish those that are struggling with a mental illness.”
Boos is the second person to die at the Adult Detention Center this year following the Aug. 22 death of Nicholas Giampa, a Lorton resident awaiting trial for allegedly killing his then-girlfriend’s mother and stepfather.
Sheriff’s office news releases indicate that 14 people have died in the jail since 2017.
