The Bobcat Nation

GREAT FALLS — Authorities say a former basketball standout at Hays-Lodgepole High School died Monday after a medical emergency at the Hill County jail, where he was being held.

A.J. LongSoldier, 18, was in custody Sunday when a detention officer requested medical assistance just before 10:30 p.m. Hill County Sheriff Don Brostrom said the teen was taken to a Havre hospital, where he died Monday morning.

The cause of death has not been released.

“We’re taking it pretty hard,” said Charlie Ereaux, head basketball coach, athletic director and teacher at Hays-Lodgepole in Hays. “I really cared and loved the kid.”

LongSoldier was a sophomore in 2007 when he led his team to the State C basketball title, scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in an 80-67 win over Big Sandy. He was booked into the jail Thursday morning on a Blaine County warrant for contempt of court. Blaine County houses all of its adult inmates in Hill County.

LongSoldier, a freshman at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, returned to Montana recently to attend the funeral of his grandfather.

“I didn’t even know he was in jail,” his mother Dayna Bear said. “I loved him.”

The state Department of Criminal Investigation is looking into the case.

GREAT FALLS — Authorities have ruled out foul play in the case of 18-year-old A.J. LongSoldier, who died shortly after being taken from the Hill County jail to the hospital in Havre.

Fergus County Coroner Dick Brown said an autopsy performed by the deputy state medical examiner showed LongSoldier died of natural causes of some type.

"There was no foul play involved," Brown said, adding that it could be a month before additional lab tests determine the cause of death.

LongSoldier was a well-known high school basketball player who led Hays-Lodgepole to a Class C state championship as a sophomore in 2007.

The state Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating LongSoldier's death, said division chief John Strandell, and a coroner's inquest will be scheduled because LongSoldier died while in law enforcement custody.

LongSoldier was booked into the Hill County jail at 3:30 a.m. Thursday on a contempt of court warrant for a juvenile charge from Blaine County. Sheriff Glenn Huestis said when LongSoldier was arrested, he did not say he was sick.

Don Farrar, 24, of Harlem, said when he was being released from jail Friday, he heard LongSoldier complain about being nauseous.

"He was kind of yelling for the guards," Farrar told the Great Falls Tribune. "He said he wasn't feeling well, that he was losing color, that he couldn't hold anything down."

Farrar said a guard asked LongSoldier what was wrong and said that he would get back to him later.

An ambulance was called to take LongSoldier to the hospital at 10:26 p.m. Sunday. He died Monday morning.

BDizzle wrote:Weird that he was being realeased from jail Friday but was still in jail Sunday when they called the ambulance. (Am I reading that right?)