Coroner releases how two inmates died in a SC jail considered the deadliest in the state
Two inmates found dead in housing units at the Greenville County Detention Center in May died of drug overdoses, Greenville County Coroner Parks Evans said in a news release Tuesday.
The men were unresponsive when paramedics got to the jail and were pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. May 12.
They were identified as Allan Lindsay Zack, 36, and Randy Eugene Broome, 45.
Evans said toxicology reports showed Zack died of acute fentanyl toxicity while Broome died of combined effects of fentanyl and xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer known as tranq.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says xylazine is added to opioids like fentanyl to extend the high.
Both deaths were ruled accidental.
A third inmate died in the Greenville County jail the same month. Michael Anthony Locke, 33, of Greenville was pronounced dead in an area hospital May 31.
The Greenville News reported in 2021 that the Greenville County Detention Center was the deadliest of South Carolina’s 10 largest facilities. Between 2008 and 2019, 27 people had died in the jail, the newspaper reported based on a Reuters’ report called Dying Inside.
