UPDATE Aug. 26, 2021: The first-degree murder charge against Shamsiddin Abdullah was dropped on Aug. 25, 2021 in Portsmouth General District Court.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — An inmate at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail has been charged with murder in the death of a fellow inmate following a death investigation.

Thomas Fludd, who was 55 years old, died Friday, February 19 around 12:30 p.m. after he was found unresponsive in his cell.

Hampton Roads Regional Jail officials tell 10 On Your Side efforts to revive Fludd failed.

Police and jail authorities have not released the victim’s cause of death, nor have any circumstances surrounding Fludd’s death been released to the public.

WAVY News 10 reached out to the Medical Examiner’s Office, which confirmed Fludd’s cause and manner of death are pending.

Officials initially did not say where Fludd was found or how he died, but confirmed they launched an investigation. The Portsmouth Police Department said it investigates all inmate deaths.

On March 24, Jail officials issued a statement saying Fludd was killed by fellow prisoner 55-year old Shamsiddin Muhammad Abdullah, also known as John Frederick Thompson, who is charged with first-degree murder.

His arraignment in Portsmouth General District Court for this charge is now scheduled for March 31. Officials haven’t released additional information.

The booking photograph of Fludd as a prisoner is not the man Riika Wright remembers.

“That definitely surprised me; didn’t even know he was in jail. I’m like what!” said Wright.

Wright recently moved from Hampton Roads, but she remembers seeing Fludd at her former church in Virginia Beach around March of last year.

“He would be at the door greeting everybody; he was always a happy guy,” said Wright.

Court records show Fludd was behind bars on felony larceny charges for a crime that happened in 2019.

The man who allegedly killed him was behind bars for several felony charges, including grand larceny.

Wright was surprised to learn Fludd had trouble with the law and was in custody at a facility that has a history of trouble with local, state, and federal officials.

Three local Sheriffs will no longer send prisoners to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail following a string of deaths. The jail has staffing issues and it reportedly has failed to comply with corrective orders from The Department of Justice.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Wright has reached out to the Fludd family and she is calling for justice.

“You can’t bring somebody back, but I just pray that God will bring comfort and peace to the family.

The news comes after both the Norfolk and Chesapeake sheriffs announced they were pulling their inmates from the troubled jail, citing staffing issues and lack of safety. A former guard told 10 On Your Side that fear of getting COVID-19 was a key reason for many recently resigning from the jail.

In 2018, a U.S. Department of Justice report heavily criticized the jail’s medical and mental illness programs, saying the jail was violating civil rights under both the 8th and 14th amendments as well as the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Five Hampton Roads cities — Hampton, Newport News, Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth — are part of the regional jail authority.