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Inmate dies after being found unresponsive in Mecklenburg County jail

A state inspection found “significant safety concerns” over staffing shortages at the Mecklenburg County Jail in uptown Charlotte, including some driven by COVID-19 outbreaks that have sickened some 81 workers and more than a fourth of inmates.

An inmate died Friday morning after being found unresponsive at the Mecklenburg County jail in uptown, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Karon Golightly, 20, was found unresponsive at 9:58 a.m. at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center-Central, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

First responders attempted to revive Golightly, but he was pronounced dead at 11:03 a.m. at a nearby hospital. He is the first death at the jail this year, the Sheriff’s Office told the Observer in an email.

No further details about Golightly’s death were made available by the Sheriff’s Office. The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case, “as the medical examiner determines a cause and manner of death,” according to the news release.

Since 2008, there have been 22 in-custody deaths, including five in 2018 and three last year, according to Sheriff’s Office data.

Golightly was brought to the detention center on Oct. 31, 2019 and processed on state and federal charges related to a string of robberies at three Charlotte-area Target stores, the Observer previously reported.