NATCHEZ — The Adams County Sheriff’s Office said Friday the inmate who was found hanging Thursday in his cell at the Adams County Jail was alone at the time of the incident.

Detention officers were first alerted to the situation at 2:25 p.m. Thursday, when inmates told them of an emergency on the cell block, a news release from the ACSO said.

Responding officers found Joseph Laverne Sturdivant Jr., 32, hanging by the neck from a handmade rope.

The rope appeared to have been made using a bed sheet, the release said.

The inmate was unresponsive when he was discovered, and jailers tried to revive him.

Sturdivant was pronounced dead after first responders with Metro Ambulance arrived and were likewise unable to revive him.

Sturdivant, who had been booked into the jail Feb. 19 on a charge of burglary of an inhabited dwelling, was in an individual cell and did not have a cellmate, the news release said.

The incident remains under investigation.