Allergy killed escaped inmate
Aug. 26--STOCKTON -- A 16-year-old boy escaped from a county juvenile justice facility earlier this summer, only to die hours later from a severe allergic reaction, according to recently released documents that shed light on the June incident.
Tracy Ja'mare Brown Jr.'s run for freedom ended quickly. He did not get far when he and another boy got past the fence surrounding Camp Peterson, which houses young people in San Joaquin County's juvenile justice system and is adjacent to the higher-security juvenile hall.
Brown was seen fleeing north into a field after his escape around 7:19 p.m. on June 6, according to a report from the San Joaquin County Sheriff-Coroner's Office that determined Brown died of natural causes.
A deputy searching the area found the boy lying on the ground, unresponsive and without a pulse, according to the report. The deputy began to perform CPR around 7:43 p.m. A medic from American Medical Response arrived five minutes later.
Responders kept trying to revive Brown, but he was in full cardiac arrest when arriving at San Joaquin General Hospital's emergency room at 8:25 p.m. CPR continued and Brown's pulse returned, but an emergency room doctor said it appeared Brown showed signs of being brain dead. Brown's pulse faded again.
He was pronounced dead at 11:11 p.m on June 6, two days after his 16th birthday.
Juvenile justice officials told investigators Brown suffered from severe asthma, and medical records showed he had past respiratory issues. He had a clinical history of allergies.
Weeks after the death, a horticulturist followed Brown's apparent escape route through the field, identifying wild rye grass, oak white, Russian thistle and other plants that produce pollen found in Brown's system during an autopsy.
County Chief Medical Examiner Bennet Omalu's report found that Brown died as a result of "acute type 1 hypersensitivity reaction." In layman's terms, that is an extreme allergic reaction that can cause death almost immediately, said Deputy Les Garcia, a spokesman for the Sheriff-Coroner's Office.
The escape has prompted county officials to improve the fence around Camp Peterson. The county Board of Supervisors voted without discussion on Aug. 13 to go out to bid on a project to beef up the perimeter and set the fence in concrete two feet below ground. The estimated $72,000 project could be completed in November, according to the county General Services Department.
It is not the first time the fences around the camp have been upgraded after an escape. In 2010, 23 youths had escaped from the camp before county officials approved a fence fix. One of those escapees was 16-year-old James Rivera, who was shot and killed in July 2010 by law enforcement after a pursuit in Stockton. Police had reported he was wanted in connection with an armed carjacking and other crimes.
The county had already upgraded the fence in spring 2010. A second project started later that year included measures to prevent climbing, like topping 13-foot high fences with barbed wire, sloping the fences inward and using tightly woven mesh.
It corrected a vulnerability the wards had learned to use after the first fix, Chief Probation Officer Stephanie James said. On top of handling adult probation, the department runs the juvenile justice facilities.
June's escapes were the first since the completion of the latest security upgrade, she said. And the boy who left with Brown was apprehended within a week.
In the juvenile-justice world, camps and ranches are typically nonsecure facilities in relatively isolated places, James said. But Camp Peterson is in French Camp, only a few miles from Stockton. So the young people are not locked inside the compound at the camp, but they are still encircled by the fencing.
In addition to the new project to upgrade the fence, there is an independent investigation into what led up to the June escape, James said.
"We continue to make sure we have a safe and secure environment for our youth," she said.
Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at www.recordnet.com/johnsonblog.
Copyright 2013 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.
