A prisoner was found hanged inside the Edgecombe County Detention Center Friday morning, apparently as a result of suicide.

Gemayo Mendoza Chavez, 50, was found hanging from an air vent within his cell around 7:07 a.m., during routine inmate checkups, Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight said. After the deputy called to an unresponsive Chavez, and then called to other guards for help, an on-duty nurse was called in and administered CPR.

Chavez was then transported to Heritage Hospital in Tarboro, where he was pronounced dead.

Knight said the State Bureau of Investigation was called in to check into the event, which he added is being treated as a suicide.

"It is normal procedure to notify the SBI when an individual dies while in custody," Knight said.

Chavez was being held in the detention center on federal drug charges. He was sentenced Thursday to 30 years imprisonment on the charges.