Las Vegas corrections officer died of natural causes

The Clark County coroner’s office said corrections officer Kyle Eng died from natural causes related to a heart condition after he was found unconscious at the Las Vegas jail shortly after a fight with an inmate.

A Facebook post from the Metropolitan Police Department on July 30 said Eng died while on duty after he was “involved in a fight with an inmate.” The post was later edited to remove the reference to a fight, but the city later said that Eng was involved in “a minor incident with an inmate.”

The coroner’s office said Eng, 51, died from a cardiac arrhythmia, or irregular heart beat, and hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which can cause heart attacks.

He was found unconscious in the jail early July 19 and taken to University Medical Center, where he later died.

Eng’s dream was to be a police officer, and he left his job as a truck driver and manager with Anderson Dairy to chase that dream. In his application to be a corrections officer, he said he would “give it all to reach my dream,” Department of Public Safety Chief Michele Freeman said at his funeral on July 30.

He entered training to become a corrections officer in January, and had worked at the jail about a month when he died. At Eng’s funeral, his friends and family described him as their own “Superman” who loved his family and new job.

“Whatever situation we were in, we knew our dad was only a phone call away,” said Eng’s youngest daughter, Alyssa.

The city has not released additional details about the incident with an inmate.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.