An inmate in the Rappahannock Regional Jail was found hanged in his cell early yesterday, the victim of an apparent suicide, police said.

It was the first suicide at the jail at least since the jail moved to Stafford in June 2000, police said. It was not clear last night when or if there was a suicide when the regional jail was in Fredericksburg.

The 25-year-old Spotsylvania County man had just been brought to the jail the day before on a malicious wounding charge involving a friend of his in Spotsylvania, an investigator said.

Police said they don't know what led the man to kill himself. This was not his first time in jail.

The man's name is not being printed because it was not clear last night if the victim's next of kin had been notified.

The man was discovered at 12:35 a.m. and the Stafford Sheriff's Office immediately began an investigation because the jail is in Stafford. The body was taken to Richmond for an autopsy.

Prisoners are checked periodically throughout the night. Police said the man was apparently sleeping peacefully during the check before he was found hanging.

A potential suicide situation in Stafford Thursday had a much better outcome.

Sheriff Charles Jett said deputies went to the Oaks of Stafford townhouse development about 1:30 p.m. after receiving a report of a man barricaded in a townhouse with a loaded shotgun threatening to kill himself.

After evacuating the immediate area, authorities talked to the man and at 3:10 p.m., he came out and turned himself over to authorities.

The man was taken for mental health treatment, Jett said. No charges were filed.