Dealing With the Aftermath of Suicide by Cop

Police officers reacting to the aftermath of "suicide by cop" will often display symptoms of post-traumatic stress which can potentially affect their ability to perform their duties. Police officers are also victims in these cases. Among the many symptoms reported are hypervigilance, fear, anger, sleeplessness, recurrent nightmares and depression. Officers involved in suicide by cop incidents often feel a sense of powerlessness and manipulation, and this is typically reported to be an especially stressful and demoralizing form of shooting trauma. In most cases, officers involved in suicide by cop incidents are publicized as murderers, and have to stand up to public criticism and inter-department scrutiny.

In one suicide by cop incident, the suicidal victim approaches the cop with a shotgun. The officer with gun already drawn hesitates to shoot. Eventually his gun is pressed against the victim’s stomach and the victim has his shotgun underneath the officer’s chin. Terrified, the officer thinks to himself that he would never see his kids and wife again. The police officer states that:

“When it was all over with, I looked over at my partner who was leaning up against the car and it hit me what we had just been through, coming so close to death. I felt my feet going out from under me and I knew I had to sit down because I had no energy left. It scared the shit outta me. I was mentally exhausted. I went to work the next day and I couldn't look at anybody - couldn't talk to them. You start having nightmares, waking up sweating and you want to go to the bathroom and puke. It wasn't until a year later that I was able to talk about the incident in any detail”.

In the aftermath of suicide by cop, approximately 85 percent of police officers involved experience at least transitory symptoms of emotional trauma. As many as a third have moderate to severe reactions. Between 3 to 5 percent experience long-term problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD in this officer’s case affected his mental state to a point that he was unable to connect with peers at work, having trouble sleeping and occasional vomiting at night. The officer became the victim. He had to undergo serious psychiatric help to be able to live down his traumatic event.

Because a police officer’s job is to protect and serve, any alleged suicide by cop incident results in pressure from society as well as from higher authorities. This places additional mental strain on the officer, who was forced to play executioner. A court of law has to analyze the facts and circumstances of the event, and the officer has to defend himself before the court comes to a decision of “suicide by cop”. To prove suicide by cop, the facts must show evidence of suicidal intent, suicidal characteristics or behavior indicating suicidal intent. These include: the victims holding a firearm to their head; a written note stating a wish to die or recent verbal communication of a desire to die revealed to friends, family or to officers; the victims refused to drop their weapon when advised by officers to do so and then aiming their weapon at officers or civilians; the victims possessed a lethal weapon or what appeared to be a lethal weapon; the victims intentionally escalated the encounter and provoked officers to shoot them in self-defense or to protect civilians. Given the list of facts that has to be proved, this results in tremendous pressure added to the officer’s own sorrow of justifying or finding solitude in executing a suicidal victim that needed to be protected and served. These factors totally shatter a cop’s mental capacity in the aftermath of suicide by cop. We are curious to know whether the court considers as a mitigating factor whether the police officer was well informed, trained and equipped to assess the situation and apply non-lethal containment.

Officers risk their lives to serve and protect innocent civilians from harm. Society should be well informed of the potential dangers to cops in the aftermath of suicide by cop. Being well-informed ensures that the public has a greater understanding and can show compassion towards officers affected by suicide by cop. As suicide by cop becomes more prevalent, more programs must be created to help officers to overcome PTSD. Officers need to go through various kinds of counseling and psychiatric therapy to help them move on. In the end, there are two victims in a suicide by cop episode. But it is the police officer who has to deal with the aftermath of suicide by cop.

Suicide by Cop

Suicide by cop occurs when people want to die but do not want to kill themselves. So they put themselves in a position where a police officer is forced to shoot them. According to James J. Drylie, Ph.D. in a recent study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, one-third of the roughly 300 justifiable police shootings that occur annually around the nation could be characterized as “suicide by cop”. Suicide by cop is a growing trend that needs to be mitigated by proper police training and greater understanding from the community.

Whenever an officer makes use of his/her legal liberty to use their firearm, the first thought that comes to the public’s mind is homicide or murder. However, the reality is that not all officers are trained for the eventuality of a suicide by cop attempt. Occasionally, when in danger their emotions take control of their mind creating an image of potential threat. When we consider that in 80 percent of the cases the suicidal person is armed with a deadly weapon, and 60 percent of the time the weapon of choice is a firearm (50 percent of which were loaded), it is no wonder that untrained and ill-equipped officers are unable to resolve any of these situations without the use of deadly force, let alone establish the appropriate psychiatric intervention. When faced by a suicidal victim, many officers feel threatened, have tunnel vision, and become nervous and indecisive. This, despite the fact that most cases involve police response to reports of persons attempting suicide, and in many cases, the victim placed a 911 call requesting suicide by cop.

In cases where the victim poses a serious threat to the lives of officers and others, suicide by cop is entirely justifiable. In many instances, the timing, speed at which the encounter escalated and officer's perception of immediate danger to self or others left him or her with no choice but to use deadly force. One such case is where a polite and attractive young woman walks up to a police officer to within six feet in a hospital parking lot, pulls her gun out of her purse and aims it at the officer’s chest.

Where the victim poses a threat only to himself, suicide by cop is not justifiable. It should never be a case of “we will kill you before you kill yourself”. Last month a man was shot and killed by police after an alleged confrontation with police. The man got into an argument with roommates over the house rules and threatened them with a knife. Officers were called to assist and they located him a short ways away from the house. Records show that earlier this year the same man attempted suicide by laying on the railroad tracks in front of a freight train. When arrested he told police he intended to fight with them so they’d have to shoot him.

Police officers must not react with deadly force to despondent individuals suffering from suicidal tendencies, depression, mental illness or extreme substance abuse even when acting in a manner to elicit such force. This precaution must be particularly observed, where the victim stated his intention.

With proper training, police officers ought to become aware of the profiles of perpetrators of suicide by cop. Studies have shown that 98 percent of victims are male, 58 percent asked to be killed by police, 39 percent had a history of domestic violence, 38 percent had previously attempted suicide, 50 percent were intoxicated, 38 percent had a criminal history, 40 percent had a history of mental illness with 60 percent showed compelling evidence of depression, and almost 40 percent talked about homicide and suicide with the officers involved. The typical victim’s crisis episode is usually precipitated by the rupture of some important family, employment, or other relationship, which leads to feelings of hopelessness, anger, and despair.

The first responders’ approach to a crisis situation is crucial. Police officers must be able to assess the situation, establish contact and determine the main problem, evaluate the suicide risk, talk the subject down, and consider non-lethal containment. A variety of LTLs, or less-than-lethal weapons and containment technologies now exist, and more are coming on the market all the time. Police officers must be given the training necessary to use these safely. To help the officers assess the situation, police dispatch centers must speedily conduct background checks and dispatch this information to officers at the scene. One officer wrote:

"I hope you find some solution to this problem. As a police officer with 30 years experience, I had never heard the phrase, until it happened to me. Left me with mixed emotions. It was a family feud that had been going on for months…I only went there this time to remove small children. I was met at the front door by subject with a semi-automatic SKS rifle…When told to put the gun down numerous times, he refused and pointed the weapon at my partner and me. We both fired our weapons at the same time from less tha[n] three feet.

An investigation by an outside agency turned up the fact the suspect wanted to commit suicide…I think if I had been aware of this situation, I could have handled it different[ly] as senior officer on scene. I am not trying to second-guess this situation. I just feel that with some type of preparation or schooling, I might have handled the situation differently.”

It is time police authorities begin to take notice of the long-range detrimental effects these dangerous incidents have on the police officers involved, and start the process of sharing of information, training and raising awareness among police agencies.

Gays and Suicide

According to a recent study, the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people is severely compromised by bullying and harassment they receive in school; LGBT young adults report higher levels of depression and decreased life satisfaction; nine out of ten gay kids report being harassed; and gay adolescents are four times more likely than their straight peers to commit suicide.

On September 22, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after his college roommate posted video on the internet of him having sex with another male. Clementi was the fourth victim of gay teen bullying that led to suicide within a one week period. That same week, Seth Walsh, 13, Asher Brown, 15, and Bill Lucas, 15, all took their own lives after suffering harassment from schoolmates for allegedly being gay.

We must show compassion to those we consider to be “different” or who we do not agree with. Compassion is a function of wisdom. It is very important to cultivate the wisdom of knowing how to be compassionate, and then practice being more skillful at it. We must recognize that nothing is self-subsistent; that all are interdependent; that existence is an inseparable whole, each one of us embracing the universe in its totality. This being true, it follows that we cannot attain genuine peace of mind merely by seeking our own salvation while remaining indifferent to the welfare of others. We must treat all peoples, all of creation, with respect and dignity, because in doing so, we are taking care of ourselves. For us to be completely free, we must free ourselves from all forms of discrimination. If we practice compassion and non-discrimination our children will do so too.

Intolerance in any form is hate. Therefore, a crime committed through intolerance is a hate crime. We have a moral and ethical responsibility to behave in ways that do not hurt other humans. We must raise our children to be decent people, not pathetic, sniveling hate mongers. Let us help to prevent gay suicides by standing up and speaking out against intolerance in all its forms.

Suicide in the Armed Forces

Suicide among members of the armed forces has increased significantly over the last several years. From 2005 to 2009, more than 1,100 members of the Armed Forces took their own lives, an average of 1 suicide every 36 hours. In that same period, the suicide rates among Marines and Soldiers more than doubled. In 2008, 143 soldiers, 41 sailors, 41 Marines and 31 airmen took their own lives, and for the first time, the Army suicide rate exceeded that for civilians. In 2009 there were 244 confirmed or suspected cases of suicide in the military.

The major cause of suicide in the armed forces is stress. On August 23, 2010, The DoD Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces submitted a comprehensive report to the Secretary of Defense as the culmination of a year-long study into the rising incidence of suicide among members of the military. According to the DoD Task Force report, the rise in suicides is due mainly to a significant increase in military operations since 2002. Heightened operational tempo, repeated deployments and insufficient quantity and quality of dwell time have had a cumulative fatiguing effect on military personnel. This is not a challenge that Army leaders control. “It's a challenge that the president and Congress controls," said David Rudd, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The DoD Task Force also found that Military commanders are not provided the tools they need to: detect, measure, and track unit-level suicide risk factors; identify individuals who are high risk; and inform local prevention activities; and occasionally leadership environments (usually at the junior supervisory and sometimes at the mid-grade level) resulted in discriminatory and humiliating treatment of Service Members who responsibly sought professional services for emotional, psychological, moral, ethical, or spiritual matters, which not only deters help seeking but also reinforces the stigma.

The devastating effect of suicides on unit morale should compel military authorities to quickly implement the DoD Task Force recommendations: Stress on the force must be reduced; skills-based training is imperative to preventing suicide; when individuals exhibit signs of distress, peers, military leaders, and family members must be able to recognize the danger and respond with appropriate support, including referral to intervention services. Although changing a culture that views psychological illness as a weakness may take years, it helps to start now.

Guns N’ Suicide

The Harvard School of Mental Health published the results of a study that examined the relationship between household firearms ownership and the rate of suicide (see the April 2007 issue of The Journal of Trauma). Among the 50 states in the United States, those with higher rates of household gun ownership had higher rates of suicide. Although most gun owners reportedly keep a firearm in their home for protection or self defense, 83% of gun-related deaths in these homes are the result of a suicide, often by someone other than the gun owner. More than 90% of all suicide attempts by use of firearms are successful. The higher rates of suicide among those who own guns has to do with the fact that guns are much more lethal than other methods of attempting suicide.

Where there is access to firearm the risk of suicide increases if there is situational stress. Stress often leads to depression, and depression is a leading cause of suicide. The good news is that depression is among the most treatable of psychiatric illnesses. Between 80% and 90% of people with depression respond positively to treatment, and almost all patients gain some relief from their symptoms. The early recognition and treatment of depression and other psychiatric illnesses is therefore an effective way to prevent suicide.

The availability of a gun, however, makes people in stressful situations extremely vulnerable to a successful suicide attempt. The Harvard study concludes that either those who own guns lock them away with bullets stored separately from the weapon or that guns be barred from the home. The study emphatically states that people are less likely to die when guns are not available.

Coping With the Loss of a Child

 Losing a child is like losing the center of your life, experts say. It is "the most painful loss that humans can sustain," said Dr. Charles Raison, CNNhealth.com's mental health expert. It is also the unfulfilled possibilities that the child could have brought to the world - the child was going to carry the family name, write a book, contribute to mankind - and all that is torn away. How can life go on when such a child is dead?

Grieving parents can fall into blaming themselves for their child's death although it may have been completely out of their control. The recrimination is especially painful when there are “what ifs.” What if we had been there? What if I had taken the keys away from the kid? Those are the worst types of incidents that drive people crazy. Sometimes it may feel like the sadness will never let up.

But there are other ways to end your suffering besides suicide. While your feelings of loss can be frightening and overwhelming, they are normal reactions to loss. Accepting them as part of the grieving process and allowing yourself to feel what you feel is necessary for healing.

Healing can be achieved by developing coping skills and learning how to manage your feelings in a different way. The single most important factor in coping with loss is having the support of other people. Connecting to others will help you heal. To have someone believe in you - like a friend, family member, therapist - eases the suffering. Draw loved ones close, rather than avoiding them, and accept the assistance that is offered. If you follow a religious tradition, embrace the comfort its mourning rituals can provide. Spiritual activities that are meaningful to you – such as praying, meditating, or going to church – can offer solace. Grief can feel very lonely, even when you have loved ones around. In such case, sharing your sorrow with others who have experienced similar losses can help. To find a bereavement support group in your area, contact local hospitals, hospices, funeral homes, and counseling centers. If your grief feels like too much to bear, call a mental health professional with experience in grief counseling.

Arms of the Maker