Suicide by cop

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Suicide by cop (abbreviated as: SbC[1]), also known as suicide by police or law-enforcement-assisted suicide,[2] is a suicide method in which a suicidal individual deliberately behaves in a threatening manner, with intent to provoke a lethal response from a public safety or law enforcement officer[3] to end their own life.

Overview

There are two broad categories of "suicide by cop". The first is when someone has committed a crime and is being pursued by the police and decides that they would rather die than be arrested. These people may not otherwise be suicidal but may simply decide that life is not worth living if they are incarcerated and thus will provoke police to kill them. The second version involves people who are already contemplating suicide and who decide to provoke law enforcement into killing them. These individuals may commit a crime with the specific intention of provoking a law enforcement response.[citation needed]

The idea of dying by

being equipped with firearms, there are usually set circumstances where they will predictably use deadly force against a threat to themselves or others. This form of suicide functions by exploiting this trained reaction. The most common scenario is pointing a firearm at a police officer or an innocent person, which would be expected to provoke an officer to fire on them. Many variants exist: for example, attacking with a knife or other hand weapon, trying to run an officer or other person over with a car, or trying to trigger a real or presumed explosive device.[citation needed
]

This concept hinges on the person's state of mind, and their desire to end their own life, which can be difficult to determine post-mortem.

starter's pistol, at officers, or the presence of a suicide note. Some suspects brazenly announce their intention to die before they act; however, many cases can be more difficult to determine, as some suspects with the desire to die will actually fire live ammunition and even kill people before being killed themselves. Many law enforcement training programs have added sections to specifically address handling these situations if officers suspect that the subject is attempting to goad them into using lethal force.[citation needed
]

History

Many modern cases that pre-date the formal recognition of the phenomenon have been identified or speculated by historians as matching the pattern now known as suicide by cop. According to authors Mark Lindsay and David Lester, Houston McCoy, one of the two

Toronto van attack, claimed to have attempted suicide by cop when apprehended by police after his attack, requesting to be killed and claiming he was armed with a gun, a declaration which was false.[8]

Recognition and research

The phenomenon has been described in news accounts from 1981,[9] and scientific journals since 1985.[9] The phrase has appeared in news headlines since at least 1987.[10] It did not become common until the early 2000s. The phrase seems to have originated in the United States, but has also appeared in the UK, where a jury first determined someone died by suicide by cop in 2003.[11]

Some of the first research into suicide by cop was completed by Sgt. Rick Parent of the Delta Police Department. Parent's research of 843 police shootings determined that about 50% were victim-precipitated homicide. Police defined victim-precipitated homicide as "an incident in which an individual bent on self-destruction, engages in life threatening and criminal behavior to force law enforcement officers to kill them."[12]

The first formally labeled "Suicide by Cop" case in English legal history was a judgment made on May 9, 2003, by the Reverend Dr. William Dolman[11] while serving as a London coroner between 1993 and 2007.[13] It set a legal precedent and the judgment, as a cause of death, has been a part of English law since.

A 2009 study in the United States of the profiles of 268 people who died by suicide by cop found that[14]

  • 95% were male and 5% were female
  • the mean age was 35 for men
  • 41% of men were Caucasian, 26% Hispanic and 16% African American
  • 37% of men were single
  • 29% of men had children
  • 54% of men were unemployed
  • 29% of men did not have housing
  • 62% of men had confirmed or probable histories of mental health issues
  • 80% of men were armed – of these, 60% possessed firearms (of which 86% were loaded) and 26% possessed knives
  • 19% feigned or simulated weapon possession
  • 87% of individuals made suicidal communications prior to and/or during the incident
  • 36% were under the influence of alcohol.

Examples

In literary fiction

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a despondent black man who is imprisoned for a rape he did not commit, is shot 17 times and killed while trying to escape from prison in front of the prison guards.[27]

In The Outsiders, Dallas Winston, a juvenile delinquent, aims an unloaded handgun at police officers with the intent of them shooting him; he is shot dead.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Suicide By Cop". www.policeforum.org. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  2. PMID 9832661
    – via PubMed.
  3. .
  4. ^ Pinizzotto, Anthony J.; Davis, Edward F.; Miller III, Charles E. (February 2005). "Suicide by Cop." FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. 74 (2):8–20
  5. ISBN 978-0-89503-290-4. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  6. ^ "FindArticles.com | CBSi". findarticles.com. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  7. ^ "Giuseppe Zangara". Executedtoday.com. 22 March 1933. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  8. ^ "Toronto police officer hailed as hero for arresting suspect without firing shot". the Guardian. 24 April 2018. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  9. ^ a b Zandt, Clinton R. "Suicide by Cop Archived 25 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine." National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.
  10. ^ CBC News, "Suicide by cop, a growing phenomenon?" Archived 2 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. 27 February 2013. For example: "Apparent Suicide By Cop on LIRR," Newsday, 11 April 1987.
  11. ^ a b Allison, Rebecca (10 May 2003). "UK's first 'suicide by cop' ruling". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  12. ^ Parent, Richard 2004. "Aspects of Police Use of Deadly Force In North America – The Phenomenon of Victim-Precipitated Homicide," Ph.D. thesis, Simon Fraser University.
  13. ^ "Suicide by cop" coroner retires Archived 2009-01-25 at the Wayback Machine, a brief bio of Dolman, December 2007.
  14. from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  15. ^ "World Notes New Zealand". Time. 24 June 2001. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  16. ^ Skip Hollandsworth (November 2005), "The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob", Texas Monthly
  17. ^ "Tyler Cassidy's death 'suicide by cop', coroner told". CourierMail. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  18. ^ "Mi vida como un Nolli". Revista Qué Pasa. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  19. ^ McPhate, Mike (10 June 2016). "United States of Paranoia: They See Gangs of Stalkers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  20. ^ "The Untold Motives behind Suicide-by-Cop". Officer.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  21. ^ Brumfield, Ben (21 June 2015). "Police: Cincinnati man calls 911 on self, kills responding officer". CNN. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  22. ^ Röstlund, Lisa (27 September 2017). "Mördarens sista meddelande: 'Jag fucking hatar mig själv'". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  23. ^ "Exclusive: Suspect confesses to C-L reporter; 8 dead, including deputy". The Clarion Ledger. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  24. ^ "The teen couldn't bear life anymore. So he called police with a chilling threat. - Washington Post". The Washington Post. 30 March 2023. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  25. ^ Lacey, Jackie (25 February 2020). "Officer Involved Shooting of Vanessa Marquez South Pasadena Police Department" (PDF). District Attorney County of Los Angeles. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  26. ^ Lacey, Jackie (5 February 2020). "Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Report". District Attorney County of Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  27. S2CID 145016032
    . Retrieved 26 July 2022. Tom Robinson, the black man falsely charged with rape, commits what some call 'suicide by cop,' attempting to escape from prison under circumstances that assure his death. p. 131

Further reading

External links