Utah Man Shot and Killed by SWAT Team After Calling Suicide Hotline

a reply to: Chadwickus

Yes I read the article, he called a suicide prevention hotline and after a seven hour standoff is labeled as suicide by cop. Is there a specific time frame for negotiations..?

From the OP:

"At some point those negotiations failed and unfortunately the SWAT team was involved in a shooting, and the subject is now deceased," he said.

The article isn't too specific about the details of the situation, it just seems to me that someone who wants to die "suicide by cop" wouldn't be calling a suicide prevention hotline, IMO.

So, I take it that assisted suicide is legal in Utah.

a reply to: IntroduceALittleIrony
You could be right but I would suspect that its cursory training, I really don't know for sure if any have any kind of credentials or degree in MH.

So the guy calls a suicide line and the SWAT comes and shoots him dead.....Kind of like delivering a pizza, and seemingly just as casual to these soldiers of the state in black and blue.....

There was a pretty decent Canadian TV show called Cracked the last two seasons that sort of dealt with this issue. A special psych unit that dealt with psych issues. It got cancelled...go figure. Point being, I agree that there should be a special unit, but most places just either can't afford them or don't have enough justification for them.

That being said, this could actually have been the person's chosen suicide method.

Or it could just be sad if they really wanted help and got to this place of escalating and terminal force instead.

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: Digital_Reality

So sad that people are now called subjects . Kind of a dehumanising statement . I guess you cant say ,we killed a person .

i think this deserves a thread of its own, in the founding of America it was decided we would not be subjects, that was a thing of our past when we fled the monarchs, that we now instead would be citizens, with inalienable rights, the topic here that i think deserves its own thread is the terminology police use when referring to a citizen, they dont call them citizens they call them subjects, i have listened to a police radio scanner for the last 10 years and every call every time they call us subjects, NEVER have i heard them refer to us as citizens, it is an admission all on its own.

news.bbc.co.uk...

www.washingtonpost.com...

in a moment when history took a sharp turn, Jefferson sought quite methodically to expunge the word (Subjects), to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated. Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word "citizens." No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.

a reply to: stirling



People are ignoring a key part here, he called a suicide line and whatever it was he said, it was enough for them to call 911 and report it.

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy

So you did see the part where they tried to negotiate for 7 hours, and yet you still mention shooting first and asked questions later.

Clearly that's not the case.

originally posted by: Chadwickus
a reply to: Jennyfrenzy

So you did see the part where they tried to negotiate for 7 hours, and yet you still mention shooting first and asked questions later.

Clearly that's not the case.

if you call a suicide hotline and tell them you are feeling suicidal they will ask you if you have weapons in the house, if you tell them you have a gun, they will instantly dial 911.

thats standard procedure.

a reply to: pryingopen3rdeye

It was stated that his girlfriend and her children were in the house at the time of the call too.

All the more reason to call 911.

Cops aren't what they used to be.

I find it no surprise that if a swat team is out 7 hours, someone dies.

The government says that assisted suicide is illegal. ...unless they are the ones doing the assisting.

Does the corpse have a history of shooting at people he calls for 'help'?

That's a sad ending to the situation. It seems a little more patience could have been exercised. The guy did call a suicide hotline for christ sake, which tells me he was willing and open to receiving some help. Obviously he was not having a good day, it happens to the best of us. The police had plenty of time to explore non lethal options, especially since he was apparently confined in the garage. I would think the police would be trained to use a little more restraint (yeah right) in a 'suicide by cop' situation, which unfortunately has gained popularity.

In all fairness to the police, it's hard to make a judgement call on either party without having the whole story. Although, I still don't see the need for shooting the guy to death.

It goes without saying, it's messed up for the mother and daughter to deal with this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers to them.

Well calling the police is one way to commit suicide.

a reply to: LDragonFire

What ever happened to "...serve and protect..."

a reply to: LDragonFire

The helpline volunteer was probably a cop who had been sentenced to community service for throwing a baby off of a cliff,

He thought to himself ........

"Aint nobody dyin round ere unless me and my bro's handle it "

a reply to: LDragonFire

This makes me so nervous / scared... on tuesday of this past week my cousin's mother found suicide notes from him and alerted the police and she told them he *MIGHT* have a gun, and the whole freaking SWAT team was surrounding his apartment building for about 4 hours, they sent in a bomb squad robot into the apartment to find his location. Long story short, he ended up not being in the apartment but at a friends house but there were about 30 police / SWAT members at his friend's house when they found him. So it's scary to see a VERY similar story in the news but with a very different and tragic ending. The poor guy was just trying to get help, he did the right thing by calling the hotline and this is what happens..