California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the Saturday morning death of an incarcerated person at California State Prison, Sacramento (SAC) as a homicide.
At 3:55 a.m., staff responded to an alarm and approached a cell occupied by Kyle Cooper and Rahshan Mackey. Responding officers observed Cooper unresponsive in his cell, with head trauma and immediately called for medical assistance and 911.
According to a press release from the California Department of Corrections Saturday afternoon saving measures were initiated and Cooper was transported to an outside hospital for a higher level of care. He was pronounced deceased at 5:40 a.m. by a hospital doctor.
Mackey has been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by SAC Investigative Services Unit and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Sacramento County Coroner will determine Cooper’s official cause of death.
Cooper, 50, was most recently received from Sacramento County on Aug. 11, 2015, sentenced to 37 years for three counts of second-degree robbery with enhancement of use of firearm as a second striker and possessing/owning a firearm by a felon or addict as a second striker.
Mackey, 38, was received from Alameda County on March 26, 2021, to sentenced to 23 years for voluntary manslaughter with an enhancement for personal use of a dangerous or deadly weapon as a second striker.
While incarcerated, he was sentenced to two years and eight months by Sacramento County on Jan. 26, 2024, for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon/instrument as a second striker, an in-prison offense.
Located in Folsom, SAC opened in 1986 and houses more than 2,100 medium-, maximum- and high-security incarcerated persons. SAC offers academic classes and vocational programs and employs approximately 1,500 people.
