Officers Find Second Man In Four Days Hanged In Same Police Lockup

CHICAGO (STMW) -- A 62-year-old man held on aggravated assault charges apparently hanged himself early Sunday at a Far South Side police lockup. A man charged with murdering an Aldi security guard hanged himself in the same lockup last week.

Police said the man – identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as 62-year-old Melvin C. Woods Jr. – was taken into custody shortly after midnight on aggravated assault charges.

Woods was found about 1:20 a.m. hanging in a cell in the Calumet District police station at 727 E. 111th St., police said. He hanged himself with his underwear.

The medical examiner's office said Woods, of 424 W. 129th Place, was pronounced dead on the scene at 1:30 a.m. A Sunday autopsy determined Woods died from hanging and the death was ruled a suicide.

Woods was in custody after somebody signed a complaint against him from a domestic-related incident, police said.

Woods is the second man found hanged at the Calumet District police station in the last four days.

Develt Bradford, 52, of 5300 S. Damen Ave., was found hanged by his pants Thursday in a cell at the station, police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said.

Bradford was charged last Wednesday with first-degree murder and armed robbery for a Nov. 10 attack at an Aldi store at 9017 S. Halsted St that left security guard Reginald Lanier, 54, dead.

A source said Bradford hanged himself with pajama-style pants worn under his regular clothes. The lockup keeper and lockup aide cut him down and performed CPR but could not revive him, Perez said.

Calumet Area detectives are investigating.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)