Content warning: this story contains graphic descriptions of a death suicide inside the LA County Jail.
The last time Omar Aguirre saw his son alive, he had navigated a twisting, dark “dungeon” of cages and flickering lights on the seventh floor of Twin Towers Correctional Facility to reach him.
22-year-old Maxwell Aguirre, who had been isolated for days on suicide watch, was nearly naked and shivering, dressed in only a thick quilt. He spoke to his father through a dirty, glass window: “Dad, there’s just no way I’m getting better here. There’s just no way.”
Two weeks later, Maxwell was dead.
On Monday, the family of the young United States Air Force veteran filed a lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and other defendants did not adequately monitor their son as he struggled with his mental health, and attempted suicide while in custody less than three weeks before his death.
The lawsuit filed in federal court claims that while in custody on September 3rd, 2023, 22-year-old Maxwell Aguirre took multiple Seroquol pills and Benadryl he was not prescribed. Aguirre was placed on suicide watch after this, but, for unknown reasons, was soon transferred to a dorm for military veterans.
On September 23rd, less than two weeks after the transfer, Aguirre was left alone in his cell and hung himself as deputies watched videos on the computer. He died after being taken off life support in the hospital a week later.
The young man was one of three people to die in LASD custody in September alone. Since his death, 26 more people have died in-custody. A sweeping review of in-custody deaths by the Los Angeles Times in March found that neglect by guards and medical staff was a common theme in recent years.
“Gasoline is poured on the fire — mental health crises are exacerbated due to poor conditions, lack of sunlight, lack of access to books, and most of all, lack of dignity,” said Kevin O’Hara, an attorney representing the Aguirre family. “It is disgusting that staff charged with conducting welfare checks would abscond their duties altogether to watch Youtube videos while Maxwell Aguirre, a veteran with no criminal history, hung to his ultimate death.”
Ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote a scathing memo outlining several failures in the mental health care and suicide prevention efforts in the jails. LA County jails are currently under settlement agreements with the DOJ and the ACLU regarding jail conditions.
“He went in there a healthy 22-year-old, and he came out through the coroner’s office,” said Omar Aguirre, Maxwell’s father, in an interview with LA Public Press. “The Twin Towers Correctional Facility should not be a place where people go to die.”
“There’s no cure,” said his mother, Yvette Aguirre, in the same interview. “Nothing could make this better.”
Last October, LA Public Press reported that Maxwell ended his life as sheriff’s deputies watched videos on their computers and failed to perform standard welfare checks in his dorm.
In response to the incident, assistant sheriff Sergio Aloma told LA Public Press that he restricted some internet use and was contemplating wider restrictions following the death.
But sources inside the jail last week said deputies are still on sites like YouTube at their stations. An incarcerated person living in the veteran’s dorm told LA Public Press that the internet was restricted there for only a few months.
In emailed statements to LA Public Press, sheriff’s department officials did not respond to questions about these recent allegations.
This incarcerated person, who asked to remain anonymous, citing safety concerns, also said he witnessed the events before and after Maxwell’s suicide. The young veteran had allegedly expressed suicidal ideation to other men in the dorm, and his cellmate was giving him pills. Deputies were apparently alerted to the situation and removed the cellmate.
On September 23rd, the incarcerated source said he noticed that Maxwell’s cell window was obscured with a sheet — and deputies did not address it on their welfare check.
Not long after, he said, men in the dorm noticed Maxwell’s door was closed — which was unusual in this dorm, where the men are often free to leave their cells.
Several people in the dorm allegedly began to pound on his door, screaming, “man down,” after peering into the cell and seeing Maxwell’s legs dangling through the window.
LASD deputies had missed at least one scheduled walk through while Maxwell was in his cell, the man said. “They were eating Chick Fil A, watching Call of Duty on a computer.”
The incarcerated man also said that when deputies cut Aguirre down, his head hit the floor extremely hard. Deputies allegedly attempted to cover up the incident by convincing other incarcerated witnesses to tell investigators that they gently brought him down.
The sheriff’s department told LA Public Press that they were actively investigating these allegations.
Maxwell’s family shared medical records with LA Public Press showing that in 2020, during his military service, he went to a hospital and “presented for suicidal thoughts”. His father said he informed a jail clinical social worker involved in Maxwell’s care of this history.
“I’m just not settling well,” Maxwell told the attending physician in 2020. “I’m not the same person as before the military.”
Maxwell’s father, Omar, said that he informed a clinical social worker at the jail of Maxwell’s medical history. According to Omar, Maxwell was honorably discharged from the military due to his mental health.
Maxwell was booked in July 2023 on murder charges. Before his death, court records showed that he was going to be evaluated for mental competency.
Last September, when he failed to make his regular call home, Maxwell’s parents scrambled to figure out what was going on. Their lawsuit notes that a nurse eventually told them that Maxwell was in “stable condition” at a hospital. He was actually on life support.
“He languished for a total of four days before we could even see him,” said Omar. Even as he lay brain dead in the hospital, he said Maxwell was occasionally handcuffed. The sheriff’s department told LA Public Press that it was policy to “secure” an incarcerated person with handcuffs and/or a leg chain.
Maxwell’s confident smile emanates from photos displayed across his family’s white picket-fenced home in Monrovia. There’s a photo at his older sister’s wedding. One in his Air Force uniform. A picture of Maxwell and his girlfriend, who lives in Mexico.
But there’s also a piece of paper with Maxwell’s fingerprints in the shape of a heart that was given to his family before they took him off life support. They rest on top of a print-out of his heartbeat.
The clear plastic mug he always drank out of rests on the dish-rack in the kitchen. “We haven’t moved this cup since he left,” Omar said.
His bedroom is untouched from before his time incarcerated. A pair of slouchy, worn cowboy boots with black socks draped over them sit near the door. A jumbled collection of sneakers are piled on the floor, though just above them, a crisp blue Air Force uniform still hangs neatly from a garment rack.
A small black, zippered bag sits on a chair next to his dresser: a haircut kit.
Yvette said even when Maxwell wasn’t living at home, he’d come back and she’d give him a trim sitting in the family’s dining room. “He wouldn’t get his hair cut anywhere else,” she said.
The last time she used the kit, she said, she was giving a haircut to his corpse. “I wanted to make sure he had it done the way he liked.”
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a trained listener, call 988. Additionally: Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.