The cousin of a 21-year-old man who died in the McMinn County Jail on Friday said the family wants to know how it happened.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was called in Friday after Gabriel Davis hanged himself with a sheet.
His cousin, Dakota Davis, said Gabriel Davis had been picked up for missing a court date. He said the family was told Gabriel took a sheet from a jail bed very early Friday morning and hanged himself in the bathroom.
"How could someone get a sheet down to the bathroom and do that to themselves?" Davis said by phone. "That's what those men and women [corrections officers] are being paid for. It's unacceptable for them to be so negligent."
The McMinn County Sheriff's Office did not return a call seeking comment Saturday. The TBI was asked to investigate by 10th Judicial District Attorney General Steve Crump, as is routine for in-custody deaths.
Dakota Davis said the cousins grew up on the same street for 18 years and the family knew Gabriel was a long-time drug user.
The TBI said in a news release that an autopsy will be conducted at the Regional Forensics Center in Knoxville and the investigation results will be provided to Crump for his office to review.
The death comes less than two weeks after a similar incident in a neighboring county. On Sept. 18 Ralph Nelms, 41, was found hanging in a booking area cell.
Nelms was the third person to die while in custody at the Bradley County jail this year.
Earlier this year, one inmate died after a fight, and another from a medical condition.
Billy Joe Rodgers was in jail on a charge of failing to appear in court on felony charges. He was accused of allowing his dogs to run loose and maul a woman in May 2015.
Rogers got in a fight with another inmate on April 28 and was found unresponsive by jail personnel. He died May 1 at Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga.
On March 14, inmate Hershal C. Dover, 53, vomited, collapsed and stopped breathing at the booking station after two days in the jail. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
TBI spokeswoman Susan Niland said after Nelms' death that the Rodgers investigation was still open and the results of the Dover investigation had been turned over to Crump's office.
The TBI looked into both deaths. Asked if the investigation resulted in charges, Niland said she would have to check today when the office was open.