A Western State Hospital patient is jailed on suspicion of murder in the death of his 69-year-old roommate Friday night, according to a spokesperson with the Lakewood Police Department.
West Pierce Fire & Rescue and the Lakewood Police Department responded to a medical-aid call at 6:55 p.m. Friday at the state-run psychiatric hospital that said a patient was not breathing. When crews arrived, the situation quickly turned into a criminal investigation, Lt. Chris Lawler, public information officer for the Lakewood Police Department, said Saturday.
"When we arrived, the patient, or the victim, looked like he had significant trauma," Lawler said. Because the investigation is continuing, Lawler said, he could not release information on the cause of death. But, he added, the trauma to the man's body "caused us to believe this wasn't a natural or expected death."
The man who died had lived at Western State Hospital since 1989, according to Tyler Hemstreet, a spokesperson for Washington's Department of Social and Health Services.
The roommate, 51, is in Pierce County Jail on investigation of second-degree murder. He has lived at Western State since 2014.
"These are long-term patients," Hemstreet said.
Both men were living in a 31-bed ward for patients found "not guilty by reason of insanity," Hemstreet said, meaning both had committed a crime and the court case had been resolved under the determination that they were not guilty by reason of insanity.
The man who died arrived at Western State under a charge of first-degree murder. His roommate, the man now in jail, came to the hospital under a first-degree assault charge.
The death occurred within a 15-minute window, between when Western State staff make their rounds within the ward to check on rooms, Hemstreet explained.
"We at DSHS and at Western, you know, take the utmost safety of our patients and our staff as a high priority, but, unfortunately, when you're dealing with challenging patients, you know, unfortunate incidents can happen," Hemstreet said.
Western State, one of two state-run psychiatric hospitals for adults in Washington, has more than 800 beds and 2,500 employees, according to the state website.
The Lakewood hospital is undergoing a dramatic shift in approach, transitioning to focus more on forensic patients, who arrive from jails and prisons, rather than patients committed through civil courts.
In 2018, after years of failing inspections, the hospital lost $53 million in federal money from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
In response to those troubles, state lawmakers and Gov. Jay Inslee came up with a plan to "modernize and transform the state's mental health system" that essentially splits Western State into two sections and winds down the number of civil beds. The new facility for forensic patients is expected to be finished between 2027 and 2029.
Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.
