An Alaskan man died Friday in a small community jail, making him the third such death in two weeks.
Robert Nick, 54, was taken into custody in Akiachak, home to about 600 people, “due to the level of his intoxication,” according to the Anchorage Daily News.
Hours later, he was found dead in his cell.
His cause of death is pending an autopsy at the state medical examiner’s office. Police did not say how long he had been dead before jail guards found him in his cell.
Nick is the third person to die in a western Alaska community jail in the past 12 days. On April 28, a man, 22-year-old Isaiah Parka, and woman, 24-year-old Becca White, died in a fire in the village jail in Napakiak, located southwest of Akiachak.
A guard was severely injured trying to save the two, unsuccessfully.
The fire was eventually put out after residents were able to douse the jail using a garden hose.
