A man incarcerated for his alleged role in the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer died last week while awaiting trial, becoming the first death in custody for the city’s prison system this year.
Ernest Reid, 43, of Drexel Hill, told a correctional officer on Tuesday, Jan. 16, that he had coughed up blood and was having trouble breathing, according to a statement from the Philadelphia Department of Prisons.
In-house medical staff assessed Reid and he was taken in an ambulance to Nazareth Hospital, prison officials said. He died about five hours later.
PDP Communications Director John Mitchell told Metro that no foul play is suspected and that the department is awaiting an autopsy report. PDP is also conducting an internal investigation.
Reid was housed with a cellmate at Riverside Correctional Facility, one of several jails making up the city’s prison campus on State Road in Northeast Philadelphia.
He had been imprisoned since February 2023, when he was apprehended hours after the shooting of Officer Giovanni Maysonet in West Philadelphia.
Reid, authorities alleged, was behind the wheel of a car that Maysonet and his partner stopped on the 200 block of N. 60th Street. A passenger in the vehicle, Eric Haynes, shot Maysonet in the abdomen when the officer tried to prevent him from running from the scene, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors, during a preliminary hearing in June, said Reid did not remain at the scene of the shooting and decided to drive home, according to the Inquirer. He was charged with obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence.
He was also charged with reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime for allegedly firing a BB gun earlier in the day, the Inquirer reported.
Reid, who had a lengthy criminal record that included convictions for robbery, aggravated assault and forgery, was locked up on 10% of $250,000 bail.
Maysonet was hospitalized for more than a month after being shot, and Haynes pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other crimes in December. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Last year, 14 inmates died in PDP custody, and 10 deaths occurred in 2022. Prison advocacy groups, including the Abolitionist Law Center, have raised concerns about the number of deaths at the jails.
The city’s jail system has been dealing with a severe staffing shortage – with around 40% of correctional officer positions unfilled – and is being monitored by a federal court as part of a settlement stemming from a class action lawsuit brought by inmates over prison conditions. A fourth and potentially final report from that court monitor is due in March.
Legislation establishing a new prison oversight board, which proponents say would have more authority than PDP’s current advisory board, was introduced in June. City Council, which returns to session Thursday, has yet to hold a hearing on the bill.
