On hearing the term suicide by cop (ShC) , the average person could mistakenly think of officers who take their own lives. However, to law enforcement officers, this refers to an individual who wishes to die and uses the police to affect that goal. Even when such shootings are clearly justified, the event is often quite stressful for the officers involved. The following case of an attempted suicide by cop serves as an example of this phenomenon from both the officers' perspective and the offenders' perspective.r''
Case Study1: The Officer's Perspective Two officers were dispatched to an apartment building in response to a woman yelling for help. On arriving at the location, they observed a female standing on the front steps. She waved them inside and then entered the apartment, leaving the door open behind her. As the officers approached the doorway, they could hear a male yelling and then saw him
standing in the kitchen area. As the male observed the officers enter the apart- ment, he produced a large butcher knife. He held the blade of the knife firmly against his stomach with both hands and appeared highly intoxicated, agitated, and angry. The officers drew their service weapons and ordered the man to put down the knife. The offender responded by stating, "[Expletive] you, kill me!" He turned toward the kitchen counter, put the handle of the knife against it with the blade touching his stomach, and grabbed the counter with both hands as if to thrust himself fully onto the knife. The officers attempted to talk to the offender, who responded by turning around and slicing himself severely on his forearm, bleeding profusely. The officers repeatedly asked him to drop the knife. One officer aimed his service weapon at the offender while the other pointed a chemical spray container at him. Still armed with the knife, the of- fender advanced closer to the officers. This caused the officers to retreat to apo- sition where they attempted to use the kitchen door frame as cover. As this was occurring, a backup unit arrived on the scene. The offender repeatedly told officersto shoot him while continually ignoring commands to drop the knife. From a distance of approximately 12 feet,he raisedthe knife in a threat-ening manner and charged the officers.
One officer fired two AS-caliber rounds from his serviceweapon. Both struck the offender in the chest but seemed not to haveanyeffect,exceptto make him angrier.The officerthen fired two more rounds atwhich point theweapon jammed. One ofrheserounds had struck the offenderin the hand, passingthrough it and lodging in hisgroin. The second round hit him in the chest.The offendercontinued to chargeboth officersasthey retreated down the hallway and out of the front door. As the offender arrived at the front door, he receivedanother AS-calibergunshot wound to the groin, firedbythe second officer. He dropped the knife and backed up against the wall inside the doorway but remained on Irisfeet.The officersentered the premises,removed the knife, took the offender into custody, and called for an ambulance. The offender was transported to the hospital and survived the incident. The officer who fired the initial four rounds stated, "It wasmy lifeor his, and it became his. Iwasupset that this guyput us in aposition where Ihad to do something likethis. Iwasupset with the factthat this guy kept pushing the issueand had made the decision himself, where I didn't have a decision."
Case1: The Offinder's Perspective In the morning, the offender had a serious argument with his wife, one that would only escalateifhe remained in the apart- ment. The previous day, he had a disagreement with several friends, which resulted in a fistfight. He stated that "the argument with my wife increased the pressure on me." He left the apartment and went to severalbars. He drank liquor for approximately 7 hours and got extremely intoxicated. A relative helped him home, where he and his wife continued to argue. While standing in the kitchen, he observed two police officers enter the apartment. The mere presence of the officersfurther enraged him. When asked if armed with what police would later learn were unloaded guns, confronted Chicago police officers. When the man refused to drop his guns and threatened to kill the officers, he was shot and killed.
he had wanted the officers to end his life for him, the offender said, "Quickly, I figured when they seen the knife that would have been enough. It would have been all over. But it didn't end up that way." When asked about specific thoughts during the confrontation with the officers, the offender stated, "I never thought about suicide. Never in my wildest years. I'd take a beating before I'd commit sui- cide. But, at the time and at that particular moment, the pressure was so great; the common reality wasn't there anymore. It was gone. I didn't care. I didn't care about nothing that was standing before me. I just wanted out." After advancing on the police officers, he was shot five times. The offender stated the first of several rounds that struck him "felt like bee stings" and only tended to enrage him. But by the time he reached the front of the building, he had become incapacitated. While be- ing transported to the hospital, the offender told emergency medical technicians, "Let me die; don't try to save me." He pled guilty to several counts of assault on a police officer while armed and was sentenced to a short prison term.