GBI is investigating death in jail custody
A Shannon man jailed on a parole violation dies a couple hours after his arrest.
The body of a Floyd County Jail inmate who died in custody Sunday was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab for autopsy.
County Coroner Gene Proctor said Michael Wayne Thacker, 37, of 435 Fourth St. in Shannon, was pronounced dead at 2:12 p.m. by a doctor in the Floyd Medical Center emergency room.
According to Chief Deputy Tom Caldwell of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office:
Thacker was booked into the jail on a parole violation warrant at 12:46 p.m. but began to “exhib- it serious medical conditions” and was taken by ambulance to FMC shortly after 2 p.m. Neither Caldwell nor Proctor could say Sunday night what caused Thacker’s death.
“It was the kind of behavior one would exhibit if they had been under the influence of heavy medications, but that will have to be confirmed,” Caldwell said. “The GBI needs to take a look at it so we can confirm what caused his death.”
Floyd County police arrested Johnson near his home after a complaint from a church in the area.
“He had walked into the church during their morning service and somehow disrupted it; 911 got called ... and when the officer checked, he found the warrant,” Caldwell said.
It was unclear Sunday how Thacker had violated the terms of his parole.
Thacker had been in prison several times since 2001. He was most recently released in 2016 after serving over eight years of a 20-year sentence on a burglary charge.