Official: Cook County jail inmate commits suicide

A man held on an armed robbery charge and violating his probation committed suicide at a Cook County Jail facility Saturday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said.

Thaddeus Thomas, 21, appeared to have committed suicide at the maximum security jail at 2950 S. California, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and Sophia Ansari, sheriff’s office spokeswoman. He was pronounced dead there at 3:53 p.m.

Thomas had been in custody since August 2014 for an armed robbery charge and violating his probation, Ansari said.

Court records show he was also facing multiple counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon with a previous conviction, as well as possession of a weapon by a felon. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in September 2014 at the courthouse in south suburban Markham.

Thomas was held on a $10,000 bond for those charges but was previously denied bond for allegedly violating his two-year probation sentence from a drug-related conviction in 2014, court records show.

Thomas lived in the 17800 block of South Springfield Avenue in south suburban Country Club Hills, according to the medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday.