A former sheriff’s deputy has died by suicide after he was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of attempting to have sex with a minor, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Anthony Russo, 52, once a deputy in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, was found dead in his Arrowbear Lake home on Friday, the San Bernadino County Coroner confirmed.
The sheriff’s special investigation bureau received a tip about possible crimes committed by Russo on December 10.
An undercover investigator posing as a 15-year-old contacted Russo, who ‘shared explicit material and communicated his intent to meet with the supposed minor to engage in sexual acts’Â
A day later on December 10, Russo was arrested at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, where he worked as a corrections officer, according to a release by the sheriff’s office.
He was booked on two felony counts but was ultimately charged by the Riverside County district attorney’s office with one felony count of knowingly distributing harmful material.
After his arrest, he also resigned from his role in the corrections division of the sheriff’s department.Â
Russo had been out on $50,000 bail when he died and was scheduled to appear in court on January 24.
Anthony Russo, 52, once a deputy in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, was found dead in his Arrowbear Lake home on Friday, the San Bernadino County Coroner confirmed
Pictured: Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, where Russo worked
The coroner’s office didn’t provide any additional information about the nature of Russo’s suicide or reveal who found him.
Thew sheriff’s department said they had no additional details on his death because the investigation is out of their jurisdiction.
The department did offer condolences to ‘the family and friends affected by this tragic loss.’
This comes as a New York City police sergeant was found dead Monday night after apparently shooting himself in the head.
The unidentified 44-year-old officer who worked in Queens was found dead inside his car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at around 7.20pm on a residential block in Flushing, according to the New York Post.Â
Authorities have not yet released the officer’s name, pending family notification.
Monday’s death marked just the latest suicide among the New York Police Department forces in recent years.
In 2019, four city cops took their own lives in just a matter of three weeks.
Deputy Chief Steven Silks, 63, marked the first of the four deaths that year, when he was found dead in a police vehicle in Queens on June 5 – one month before his mandatory retirement.
The next day, police found the body of missing detective Joseph Calabrese, 58, at a Brooklyn beach.
Police said they both also died of gunshot wounds to the head.
Then on June 14, police officer Michael Caddy, 29, shot himself in the head inside a car parked on a Staten Island street, and on June 2, Kevin Preiss, 53, a veteran cop assigned to the Bronx was found dead at his Nassau County home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
In total, 10 NYPD officers took their own lives in 2019.
