From [HERE] A mentally ill black man who died in a Milwaukee prison in April suffered from severe dehydration, a medical examiner concluded. Inmates said he was begging for drinking water days before perishing in custody. Terrill Thomas, 38, was sent to jail after two shooting episodes in which he allegedly was involved on April 14

Thomas suffered from bipolar disorder and, according to his family, had experienced a mental breakdown at the time of his arrest. His mother asked the police to take him into custody, saying her son had become violent and erratic.

On April 27, he was supposed to undergo medical evaluation to determine if he was competent to stand trial for five counts of charges against him. But this didn’t happen because on April 24 he was found dead in his solitary cell.

Thomas’s body showed no injuries, but his “biochemistry testing revealed profound dehydration,” the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said on Thursday. The death was ruled a homicide.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's office, which runs the jail in which Thomas died, declined to comment on the incident until an investigation is complete. The Milwaukee Police Department is leading the probe to avoid a conflict of interest. It would not comment on the matter either.