An Oakland man died at Santa Rita Jail on Saturday, just an hour after being released from a local hospital, marking the third in-custody death at the facility this year and the second within a week. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office reported that 44-year-old Jeffrey Bryce McMaster, a resident of Oakland, collapsed in the restroom of the jail's outpatient facility.
Staff immediately attempted lifesaving measures, but he was pronounced dead at approximately 12:45 p.m. McMaster had returned to the jail about an hour earlier after being discharged from a hospital, where he had been treated following a seizure in his cell on May 28.
He had been in custody since February 3 on a murder charge related to the fatal beating of another resident at an Oakland residential hotel, according to the East Bay Times. His cause of death remains under investigation pending an autopsy and toxicology testing.
Deputies found him unresponsive in a dormitory housing unit after he failed to report for breakfast the following morning. Additionally, 36-year-old Dequita Grace Harrell died while visiting an inmate in the jail lobby in February.
McMaster's death is the 78th in-custody death at Santa Rita Jail since 2014. This incident follows the recent death of a San Francisco man who was found unresponsive a day after being transferred to Santa Rita Jail.