A bloody encounter at the beleaguered Fulton County Jail ended in tragedy as 37-year-old Leonard Fortner was fatally stabbed by another inmate, officials say. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Atlanta police are now investigating the incident which occurred shortly before 6:30 p.m. last Thursday in the communal area of the lockup where both men were housed. Fortner, who had been detained since January 2 on a charge of criminal damage to property, succumbed to his injuries after being rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead at 7:39 p.m., the sheriff's office detailed.
Edward Cherry, who was being held since April 2020 on charges including aggravated assault and kidnapping, is accused of the stabbing spree that ended Fortner's life. Cherry now faces additional charges of murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during a felony. Found covered in insects in September 2022, in the very same jail, the Justice Department last year cited filthy conditions including violence, and a man's death, when they launched a civil rights probe, WABE reports.
Enmeshed in controversy, the Fulton County jail has seen a spate of deaths; Fortner's passing marks the second fatality within its walls this year, as disclosed by the Sheriff's Office. Last year's grim tally reached ten deaths in custody, pointing to systemic troubles within the penal institution. Due to a computer system hack in January, Fulton County's court website remains offline, leaving it unclear if Cherry has legal representation to speak on the charges brought against him.
An autopsy to determine the exact cause of death for Fortner is on the cards, to be conducted by the Fulton County medical examiner’s office. While Atlanta's criminal underbelly is often highlighted in the news, the depravity behind bars, where detainees like Cherry and Fortner find their fates fatally intertwined, casts a harsher light on the conditions that may breed such violence. Details on how Cherry acquired the knife used in the deadly stabbing have not been disclosed by the Sheriff's Office, yet the weapon's entrance into a supposedly secure facility raises questions about the institution’s operational integrity.
