Slayer of 2 Officers Apparently Hangs Self

Joselito Cinco, sentenced to die for killing two San Diego police officers, apparently took his own life by hanging himself with a sock in his San Quentin prison cell, officials said Wednesday.

Corrections Lt. Cal White, a spokesman at the Northern California prison, said Cinco, 29, was found at 2:44 a.m. Monday. He had apparently hanged himself by rolling and stretching the sock, fastening it to the top of his 8-foot-high cell door, and then wrapping the other end around his neck, White said.

He was pronounced dead about 15 minutes later in the prison infirmary.

Cinco arrived on San Quentin’s Death Row in July after being convicted and sentenced to die earlier this year for killing two police officers and seriously wounding a third during a gun battle in Balboa Park four years ago.

Blames Drugs

Shortly before he was sentenced in June, Cinco blamed the killings on a “drug-induced impulse.”

“I wish I could turn back the hands of time,” Cinco said then. “If I could, I’d gladly trade my life for theirs (the officers).”

News of Cinco’s apparent suicide swept through San Diego police headquarters on Wednesday.

“I’m relieved. I’m glad it’s over and done with,” said Officer Gary Mitrovich, who has returned to field duty since being shot in a shoulder by Cinco.

Corrections Sgt. Vernell Crittendon, another prison spokesman, said Cinco had not been a “management problem” at San Quentin. He said his “Grade A” classification meant that he was in the least-restrictive setting for Death Row inmates.

No Unusual Measures

Crittendon also said that San Quentin allows condemned inmates to have belts, bedding and other material that can be fashioned into nooses, and takes no unusual measures to safeguard against suicides.

However, since all Death Row tiers are maximum security, officers do patrol them more often than they do on cellblocks elsewhere in the prison, Crittendon said.

The official cause of death has not been released, but prison officials said that all indications are that it was suicide.

Although Cinco was found dead Monday morning, prison officials said word of his death was not immediately released because of difficulty in locating his family.

Cinco, a former auto mechanic, was the second Death Row inmate to kill himself this year. Inmate Mose Willis, sentenced in Los Angeles, hanged himself in his cell on June 26.

Two Officers Killed

The San Diego shootings occurred on Sept. 14, 1984. Killed were Officers Kimberly Tonahill, 24, and Timothy Ruopp, 31.

The shooting started after Ruopp gave Cinco and another man misdemeanor citations for providing liquor to two teen-age girls at the park. Tonahill was in the process of searching Cinco when he suddenly pulled out a 9-millimeter automatic pistol and began firing.

Officer Mitrovich, patrolling nearby, went to help and was also shot by Cinco, who was captured hours later.

Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this story from San Francisco.