St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office lost two deputies to suicide

1-Month-Old Baby Orphaned After Both Parents Die by Suicide Within Days of Each Other

PEOPLE
By Katie Campione
January 05, 2022

"While it is impossible for us to fully comprehend the private circumstances leading up to this devastating loss, we pray that this tragedy becomes a catalyst for change, a catalyst to help ease the stigma surrounding mental well-being and normalize the conversation about the challenges so many of us face on a regular basis," Mascara concluded his statement.

Clayton Osteen, 24, and Victoria Pacheco were both St. Lucie County Sheriff deputies and shared a one-month-old son named Jayce

The infant son of two Florida sheriff's deputies is orphaned after both of his parents took their own lives.

Clayton Osteen, 24, and Victoria Pacheco both died by suicide in the past week, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said on Tuesday.

Shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve, authorities received a call that Osteen had attempted suicide. He was transported to the hospital for his injuries.

On Jan. 2, Osteen's family decided to remove him from life support, the sheriff's office said.

In the wake of her partner's death, Pacheco also died by suicide, the sheriff's department learned on Tuesday. Osteen and Pacheco shared a 1-month-old son named Jayce.

Osteen joined the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office in 2019. In 2020, he was awarded deputy of the year, according to his obituary.
read more here

'Close' Relative to Adopt Baby of Deputies Who Will Be Laid to Rest Together After Tragic Deaths

Osteen — a Florida native — was a former SWAT team member and was named 2020 Deputy of the Year, his obituary said. He also served in the U.S. Marines and as a non-commissioned officer. Loved ones remembered him for his humor and dependability.

He served others in National Guard and Police Officer...but lost his own battle

Former police sergeant dies

CENTRAL OREGONIAN
Jason Chaney
February 20, 2020

Prineville Police Chief Dale Cummins confirmed Tuesday that Mark Monroe, a former sergeant with the agency, took his life on Monday afternoon.

"Yesterday afternoon, the members of our law enforcement community lost a good man and dear friend," Cummins wrote in a statement posted to the police department's Facebook page on Tuesday.

In the post, Cummins stated that Monroe had resigned from the local agency on Jan. 10.

"The Prineville Police Department grieves over the loss of our friend, mentor, and colleague," he wrote.

The post, which can be found on the Prineville Police Department Facebook page, includes a musical video tribute to Monroe featuring music Cummins said he would have preferred.

Cummins said that Monroe was a military veteran, serving in the Army National Guard from 1991 to 1999. He started his law enforcement career as a Prineville police reserve officer in 2004. He was employed by Warm Springs Police from 2004 until 2005, and then returned to Prineville as a police officer, where he remained for the rest of his law enforcement career.
read it here

Sheriff John Mina sets example of “It’s OK to not be OK"

‘It’s OK to not be OK’: Orange County Sheriff shares experiences with PTSD after rise in law-enforcement suicides

WFTV 9 News
By: Lauren Seabrook and Adam Poulisse
Updated: January 8, 2020

On Monday, Mina uploaded a video on the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page called “It’s OK to not be OK." In it, he shares his own story of dealing with depression and urges fellow law-enforcement officers to seek mental help if they need it. It has already been viewed more than a million times.

On Monday, Mina uploaded a video on the Orange County Sheriff?s Office Facebook page called ?It?s OK to not be OK."

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — One case has stuck with Sheriff John Mina.

“I remember one case that I went to, where an 11-year-old actually pointed me to the closet where her dead mother was,” Mina recalled. “An awful case.”

Dead children. Dead infants. Having to use his firearm to take someone’s life in the line of duty -- “those things will affect you,” Mina said.

Last year, more than 224 officers committed suicide nationwide. In response to the rising numbers, Mina is sharing his own experiences of post-traumatic stress disorder.
read it here

Suicide awareness did not save their lives

Did all the "suicide awareness save any of these lives?

They risked their lives to save other people. Isn't it time we actually noticed that fact instead of dismissing what happens to them when they cannot save their own lives or find the help they need?

Veterans raise awareness about mental health after Dyess airman takes own life

KTXC 12 News
by Daniela Ibarra
December 2nd 2019

“He was depressed," said Blair's friend Tim Ringhoffer. "He was angry at times about the lack of help.“ His friends believe the suicide could have been avoided.

ABILENE, Texas — The friends of a Dyess airman who committed suicide after a standoff with Abilene police are trying to raise awareness about mental health.

Air Force Staff Sergeant Ryan Blair took his own life Saturday after he was shot by an Abilene police officer.

Blair's friends said they will miss his warm, fun to be around personality. But behind his smile, Blair's friends said he was hurting.
read it here

‘We are heartbroken:’ Elm Grove police mourn 19-year veteran who died by suicide at police department

FOX 6 News
BY KATIE DELONG
NOVEMBER 26, 2019

ELM GROVE — Elm Grove police on Tuesday, Nov. 26 posted a heartfelt message on social media, mourning the loss of a 19-year veteran of the Elm Grove Police Department, who died by suicide at the department in the early morning hours of Monday, Nov. 25.

Police identified the officer as Sgt. Joseph Ipavec, described as “a leader in our department and in our community.”

Sgt. Ipavec mentored new officers in his role as a field training officer and certified firearms instructor, police said. He represented the department as the Citizen Police Academy’s liaison.
read it here

Orange City police sergeant shoots herself in suicide on Daytona Beach, officials said

News Journal
By Patricio G. Balona
Posted Nov 20, 2019

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, the agency that is investigating the death, said the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue and Daytona Beach police received information that an off-duty Orange City police officer possibly committed suicide on the beach.

An Orange City police sergeant shot and killed herself on Daytona Beach on Tuesday night leaving her longtime colleagues grieving, officials said.

“She was a very happy person, always laughing with everyone here at the department,” said Orange City police Lt. Jason Samspell. “There was no indication that she had any type of illness or stress. We are all shocked by her death.”

Authorities said that 12-year veteran Sgt. Kelly Jo Brubaker, 49, shot and killed herself on the beach near SunSplash Park about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Dispatchers said on Tuesday night that a woman, who the police department on Wednesday confirmed was Brubaker, was pulled out of the surf with a gunshot wound to the head.
read it here

NYPD Retired Officer Committed Suicide

Retired NYPD sergeant reportedly kills himself amid department's 'mental-health crisis'

FOX News
Nicole Darrah
September 3, 2019

The most recent death was of Robert Echeverria, a 20-year NYPD veteran who killed himself in his Queens home in August. The 56-year-old's death came one day after a police officer from nearby Yonkers also killed himself.

Editor's note: This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).]

A retired New York City police sergeant reportedly killed himself Monday — adding to the growing number of police officers protecting the country's biggest city who have committed suicide this year.

The 48-year-old male officer, who has not been publicly identified, shot himself in the head while sitting in his car in a parking lot on Staten Island, a borough of New York City, the New York Post reported.

While apparently retired, his death follows the deaths of nine NYPD officers who have killed themselves since January — a situation described by Commissioner James O'Neill as a "mental-health crisis."
read it here

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Most obvious answer to stop suicides still being missed

Want to save lives? Get the message right first

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 29, 2019

If you visit this site often, I am sure it has been showing my frustration more and more. Glad that I am not doing a podcast, because holding back words I should not use in public, is getting harder and harder.

I am sick and tired of hearing another head of yet another department make the same mistake of miscommunication out of ignorance.

Another New York Officer committed suicide. He was the fifth since June. This is the message from NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.

“You may not know this, and it may be hard to imagine, but you are not out there all by yourself,” he said. “More people than you know, who wear the same uniform as you do, share the same doubts and fears and struggles that you do. Seeking help is strength. Talking about your problems is strength. Acknowledging you need a place to turn is strength. There is no shame here ― only a promise to provide you with the help and support you need and deserve.”

In a tweet, the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association called the officer’s death “terrible news,” asking for prayers for his friends, family and colleagues.
read it here

The part that they need to hear is that while there are others suffering, they are also still serving. They are still risking their lives to save strangers because lives matter. That includes those they serve with and are willing to die for too.

If they understand what PTSD is, then there is no stigma. If they understand what their job is, then there is no reason to deny they need help. If there is no reason to deny they need help, they will stop killing themselves and start helping each other heal.

 After 37 years, I would like to finally be able to retire. Considering how the most obvious answer to this heartbreaking outcome keeps getting missed, I doubt I ever will be able to.

NYPD and Chicago lost two more officers to suicide

Hero cop sixth NYPD officer to take life in 2019

The Riverdale Press
By JOSEPH KONIG 
Posted July 7, 2019

Five months later, however, Preiss was dead, reportedly taking his own life outside his Nassau County home June 26. He was the fourth New York Police Department officer to commit suicide in June, the sixth this year.

He was 53.

It was early in the morning on Jan. 27 when Liam Amir Rodriguez decided it was time to be born.

Officer Kevin Preiss, right, smiles with officer Roland Benson and the baby they helped deliver in January. Preiss reportedly died by suicide last month.

Liam’s parents, Naida and Jerry, began to make their way to the emergency room, except there was one problem: The elevator in their North Riverdale building was out of service. The contractions were starting, and on top of that, Naida needed to use the bathroom, so she returned to the apartment.

“Developments being what they were, my daughter could not leave the apartment,” Liam’s grandmother, Rebecca Maitin later explained in a letter. Maitin called 911, and within moments, two 50th Precinct officers were at the door.

Officers Kevin Preiss and Roland Benson helped deliver a perfectly healthy baby boy at 2:20 a.m., in a narrow hallway. Two weeks later, Preiss and Benson returned with a gift bag of baby clothes.

“There is good and kindness within New York’s finest and New York’s first responders,” Maitin wrote. read it here

Officials: Sheriff’s officer shoots himself to death on Northwest Side

Chicago Tribune
Rosemary Sobol
JUL 06, 2019

At least seven Chicago police officers have committed suicide in the last year. And the New York Police Department just experienced four suicides in three weeks, spurring the department to seek “psychological autopsies” to analyze the officers’ actions.

A Cook County corrections officer has taken his own life in a forest preserve in the Forest Glen neighborhood. Graham Hyland, 40, died of a gunshot wound to the mouth, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy Saturday determined Hyland’s death was a suicide. 

Hyland was found at approximately 9:45 p.m. Friday in the 5900 block of North Central Avenue, at the Ted Lechowicz Woods. Hyland was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.
read it here

If you decided to risk your life for a living...saving others, isn't it time you included saving your own life? #BrakeTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Sgt. John Rikard of the Asheville Police Department was gone

After Husbands' Suicides, 'Best Widow Friends' Want Police Officers To Reach For Help

NPR
SAMANTHA BALABAN JAMES DOUBEK
June 9, 2019

Nicole Rikard's husband, John Rikard, died by suicide in 2015. She talks with three other widows of police suicide every day.

Nicole Rikard had recently married Sgt. John Rikard of the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina. He had an 8-year-old son, Tucker, from a previous marriage. From the time Nicole and John started dating, they had scarcely been apart.

Soon after they married, however, Nicole had to go to Florida for some work training — she was a crime scene investigator in the same police department. John worked an overnight shift and would call her when he woke up to check in.

But one day, John wasn't answering her texts. Nicole heard from a colleague that he hadn't shown up for work either.

Stuck hundreds of miles away in Florida, Nicole got on the phone with John's colleagues in Asheville. She told the police to break into their house.

Thirty-six agonizing minutes went by. Nicole was vomiting in the shower.

She finally got a phone call from one of John's lieutenants.

"Well, John is gone. And it appears to be self-inflicted," the lieutenant told her.

"And I said, 'What the f*** are you talking about?'"
READ MORE HERE

Girl with fake ID, an affair and Police Officer committed suicide

“All of you should be ashamed”: Family of JPD officer who killed self over accusation of teen’s rape says he was a good man

WLBT 3 News
By Morgan Howard and Mary Grace Eppes
May 31, 2019

The family claims that Hollins met the teenager outside of a 21 and over club in Jackson and that he had no idea she was underage.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The family of Jackson Police Officer James Hollins says their son was a good man and is calling out attorney Lisa Ross for lying after the officer committed suicide amid rape allegations.

According to Jackson Police Chief James Davis, the 29-year-old officer shot himself on I-220 Monday afternoon after allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl.

According to the child’s attorney, Ross, the 15-year-old was approached by Hollins and befriended. She added that the incidents took place several times a week over the six month period and there are several sexually explicit videos of the officer with the minor in the back of his patrol car.

The teen’s mother caught onto the misconduct and the family and Ross reported it to the police chief last weekend.

Hollins’ father and stepmother posted on social media in the days after the incident, saying their son was one of the best police officers that JPD ever had, that he was a veteran, a great daddy and was about to be married.

“James, a good man and a great father and someone who fought for each of you as Americans, was devastated when he found out she was 16! He had no idea she was not an adult! And after he found out he could not live with himself nor bear the thought that he might be found guilty in spite of what he knew to be true about this situation. He could not bear the thought that he might not be able to be a police officer anymore. All he ever wanted to be was an officer. He loved protecting people. He loved serving. And he could not bear the thought that this mistake might cost him his family," they wrote on Facebook.

“He made a mistake as young people do by allowing himself to be seduced by a woman (as she claimed and appeared to be when he met her as she was leaving from a 21+ club). This wasn’t going on for 6 months!" the family continued. "This 16 year old (NOT 15, lying lawyer Lisa Ross!) has a fake ID, a fake name, and not a single one of you would have questioned whether she was of age!”
read more here

Flagstaff officer found dead

Flagstaff officer found dead from suicide, police report

Arizona Daily Sun
SCOTT BUFFON Sun Staff Reporter
Mar 13, 2019

A Flagstaff Police Department officer has died of an alleged suicide Tuesday, Flagstaff police officials report.

Officer Daniel Beckwith had been on paid leave since June 2018 and living in Mesa with his wife, according to the Flagstaff Police Department on Facebook. Beckwith was a 5-year veteran of the Flagstaff Police Department.

The Mesa Police Department responded to a report of a suicidal subject on March 12. Upon their arrival, they discovered Beckwith dead at his home. There was no one else at the home when police arrived.
read more here

#BreakTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife

Bridgeport Police Officer Found Dead

Police release name of Bridgeport cop who died in suspected suicide

CT Post
By Julia Perkins
March 3, 2019

If it’s determined to be a suicide, it would be Bridgeport police’s second in a little more than a year. Officer Thomas Lattanzio died by suicide on Dec. 4, 2017, putting a spotlight on the too-common suicides of law enforcement officials.

BRIDGEPORT — The city is mourning the loss of Sgt. Mark Belinkie, a 19-year-veteran of the Bridgeport police, whose death police are investigating as a suicide.

Belinkie, whose name Bridgeport police released Sunday, was found dead in his Milford home on Saturday.
read more here

#BreakTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife

You took a job to save others...

and that should include you too!

Kansas Police Officer's Widow working to break silence after husband's suicide

KCK sergeant's widow says police departments can't sweep suicide under the rug anymore

KSHB 41 News
By: Sarah Plake
Feb 26, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — "On April 22, 2015 my late husband, Sgt. Brett Doolittle of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, ended his life," Lindsey Doolittle said matter-of-factly.

Facing the reality is what helps her survive.

Doolittle came home that Wednesday evening like a regular day. She parked her car in the back garage.

"That's when I saw my husband. He had ended his life. He had died by depression, but the tool that he used was helium," Doolittle said.

She found Brett in the garage below the house, where he would spend time creating art.

It'll be almost four years since that devastating day.

"I forced myself to come down here. I mean, I live here. I force myself to do the uncomfortable so I can live," said Doolittle.
read more here

#BreakTheSilentService and stop being speechless

Suicides tied to service...speechless

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 16, 2019

Maybe it is the margarita I had with dinner tonight, but I've been sitting here for a while, reading about more suicides, and shaking my head...totally speechless.

None of these suicides make sense. Can someone please give me a reason that would explain how someone values lives so much, they are willing to die to save someone else...then take their own life?

How does that work? How do they reach that as the solution to their problems when there are so many other options for them? 

How do they have no problem asking for help, or backup, when the odds are stacked against them being able to prevent deaths, but cannot open their mouths to do the same when it is their life on the line? Any ideas?

Within all the reports I read, there are others that tell how they will go to great lengths to prevent the suicide of a stranger.

It happened here in Orlando when an amputee veteran had a knife to his throat and then asked Officer Wesley Cook to put a bullet in him. 

Officer Cook, a veteran as well, talked to the veteran about what can happen for him, instead of the only thing he was thinking about.

Officer Cook showed patience and compassion for the veteran in crisis and it changed the outcome because he understood what was going on.

So again, tell me how it is that this officer, knew what was going on within the mind of this veteran, but so many police officers are taking their own lives all over the country? 159 did last year.

It happens to Firefighters too. Even volunteer firefighters like "Tim Ebert died by suicide last week" in Wisconsin.

"He was a student at UW-Platteville. So, between being a student working part time and being a volunteer on the Fire Department, he was a pretty busy guy," Simmons said. 

We know suicides in the military are up as well in the veterans community. What we do not know is how to get the nonsense out of their conversations and start real ones that can help them make sense out of their lives. 

They still do not understand what PTSD is!!!!

If we get them to see how none of this makes sense...then maybe they'll have a chance to make sense out of their lives.

Kansas City Police Officer's organs being donated after suicide

KCPD officer's family to donate organs after self-inflicted gunshot wound

KSHB News
By: 41 Action News Staff
Feb 10, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department officer remains in critical condition and on life support after a suffering a self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday night.

The officer's family has decided to donate his organs and hospital staff are awaiting organ donor recipients, according to the KCPD.

Officers responded were searching for a missing and endangered person Friday night. In this case, "a dedicated officer who has served our department for approximately 10 years ... was missing and feared to be suicidal," KCPD in a statement.

Liberty police, who were assisting in the search for the officer's vehicle, located it in the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church parking lot about 9 p.m.

Responding police officers found the officer suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The unidentified officer was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
read more here

He took a job he knew could kill him one day. He wanted to serve his community and save lives. He was an organ donor, so, yet again, he wanted to save lives. So why did the lives of others mean so much to him, but his own did not? Because he never got the message that PTSD is not anything to be ashamed of and those he served with would have tried to save him too!

Chicago Police Officer Found Dead

Chicago police Sgt. Lori Rice found dead in apparent suicide

ABC 7 News
By Will Jones and Alexis McAdams
60 minutes ago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 47-year-old off-duty Chicago police sergeant was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The officer was identified as Sgt. Lori Rice, a 21-year veteran of the police department who worked in the 12th District.

Rice was found at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of South Bell, just off Taylor Street, in a vehicle on Chicago's West Side.

This is the second suicide this year involving a Chicago police officer. Last year, four CPD officers died of suicide.

Sunday morning, a procession followed as the officer's body was taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
watch video here

If you think they will not be there for you, think again. Did you see the line of police cars escorting her body? Do you think they would have helped her if they knew she needed it? #BrakeTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife

Chicago police officer committed suicide for New Year's Day?

OK! So, people decide to risk their lives to save other people...but do not include themselves on the "to do list" when they need help to live? Seriously something still so totally wrong with this especially when you consider that if they had a clue what PTSD, they'd discover there is no shame in the damn thing!

If you are still confused about what PTSD is then blame the people you've been listening too. 

Chicago officer 1st police suicide of 2019 as numbers continue steady rise

Altlanta Journal Constitution
By Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Jan 02, 2019

CHICAGO
A Chicago police officer fatally shot himself at his home on New Year’s Day, becoming at least the fourth officer the department has lost to suicide in the past six months.

Officer Dane Anthony Smith, 36, was off-duty when he died, according to CBS Chicago. Smith, who worked at police headquarters, died just two weeks after two of his colleagues, Officer Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Officer Conrad Gary, 31, were killed by a train as they chased a man they suspected of firing gunshots in the area a few minutes earlier.
read more here

Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Committed Suicide

243 first responders commit suicide last year; more than died in the line of duty

FOX 13 News

Elizabeth Fry

December 29, 2018

CLEARWATER, Fla. (FOX 13) - Early Saturday morning, a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office took his own life in the backyard of his Clearwater home.

Deputy Carlos Felipez, 46, had served on the force since February of 2014. He died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

His death is now the fourth first responder suicide in the Tampa Bay Area since September. The tragedy has brought to light the challenges first responders take home with them each and every day, and the last effect those challenges have.

"They see things that none of us really ever want to see or have to experience. So to know that they're going from call to call to call that can really add up and take such a huge toll on them," said Clara Reynolds, CEO of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.

It was reported that in 2017, 243 police officers, deputies, and firefighters committed suicide.
read more here

Deputy and family lives lost to murder-suicide

update
He was ‘Officer of the Year.’ Then Hillsborough deputy killed his family and himself

Sheriff Chad Chronister said the deputy killed his daughter and granddaughter at one home and his wife at another. Then Deputy Terry Strawn committed suicide outside Plant City High School.

Deputy kills family then self, despite colleagues' pleas

FOX 13 News
December 19, 2018

Deputies have since identified the victims as Strawn's 54-year-old wife Theresa and the couple's granddaughter, 6-year-old Londyn, who lived with them. Strawn also killed his daughter, 32-year-old Courtney Strawn, at her home.

PLANT CITY, Fla. (FOX 13) - A veteran Hillsborough County deputy killed three family members, including his granddaughter, then broadcast a heart-wrenching radio message to his colleagues before ultimately killing himself, Sheriff Chad Chronister announced this morning.

With "an extremely heavy heart," the sheriff recounted the sequence of events that ultimately ended with the suicide outside Plant City High School.

According to Chronister, it was just after 6:30 a.m. when Deputy Terry Strawn spoke up on the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office main radio channel to say that he had "caused harm to his family," provided details about two crime scene locations, and then said he planned to commit suicide at the school.

As the communications supervisor tried to talk Strawn out of it, three other deputies caught up to him outside the school. They, too, tried to intervene, but failed.

"Unfortunately the deputy took his own life on scene in front of the three deputies," the sheriff said.

If you or a loved one is feeling distressed, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The crisis center provides free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week to civilians and veterans. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Or text 741-741.

read more here

#TakeBackYourLife you are worth fighting for!

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer Suicide Inquest hard to digest

Late RCMP officer's supervisor breaks down in tears at coroner's inquest

THE CANADIAN PRESS
Updated: November 28, 2018

Ward said he would have spoken to Lemaitre after the Dziekanski incident but there were no discussions about correcting the information because once it was out in the media, there was not much that could be done about it.

A supervisor of an RCMP officer who took his own life in 2013 broke down Wednesday as he read the last few emails exchanged between the two men to a coroner’s inquest.

RCMP Supt. Denis Boucher, who was Pierre Lemaitre’s supervisor when he was moved to the traffic division, tells him they could meet up for coffee and chat in one of the emails.

“Hope you’re making progress in your recovery,” Boucher said, reading from one of his exchanges with Lemaitre. “I just wanted to let you know that I’ll always help you if I can.”

A few people in the courtroom also wiped away tears as they listened to the interaction between them.

Lemaitre was a sergeant and a media spokesman for the RCMP when he released inaccurate information, which the inquest has heard he wasn’t allowed to correct, about a man who died after a confrontation with police at Vancouver International Airport in 2007.

Lemaitre’s former family doctor and psychologist have told the inquest he had post-traumatic stress disorder from dealing with victims of crime but the incident involving Robert Dziekanski increased his depression and anxiety.

A former media strategist for the Mounties accused the department of betraying Lemaitre, testifying that he had been “hung out to dry” by his superiors who wouldn’t allow him to set the record straight. Atoya Montague told the inquest that Lemaitre was used to tell a false story about the death of Dziekanski, a Polish man who couldn’t speak English and became agitated after wandering around the airport arrivals area for 10 hours.

Boucher said he was aware that Lemaitre was suffering from PTSD and depression. He also described him as someone who had a strong work ethic.

Meanwhile, Lemaitre’s supervisor in the media division said Lemaitre didn’t seem overly stressed about the misinformation he gave the media after Dziekanski’s death.

John Ward, a retired staff sergeant, said part of the job of a communications officer is to trust that the information going out to the media is largely correct.

He was asked by a juror whether the RCMP was generally aware when it gave out incorrect information.

“I can’t recall where we gave out wrong information,” he replied. “We were careful about the information we gave out.”
read more here

‘They want to disappear’: psychiatrist speaks to Mounties’ PTSD struggle

Chicago Police Officer Suicide Rate 60% Higher Than Others

Chicago police officer suicide rate 60-percent higher than other departments
FOX 32 News
October 1, 2018

In a FOX 32 special report: a hidden battle behind the badge.

The tragic trend of police suicides is hitting home in Chicago, with officers taking their own lives at alarming rates.

FOX 32’s Elizabeth Matthews explains why the numbers are higher here than anywhere else.

“He wanted to help everybody, he wanted to help the world, not only certain people. He started noticing, after high school, how bad the world is, and his mission in life was to fix it,” said Ark Maciaszek.

Ark describes his cousin Scott Tracz as loud and passionate, with a big heart. Scott served as a Chicago police officer, working in some of the city's toughest neighborhoods.

“Once he got on it, this guy was 100 percent devoted to it. He said this is it. This is what I want to do. This is how I'm going to fix this,” Ark said.

But at age 30, the job began to take its toll on Scott, and Ark began asking questions.

“I wanted more details so I started asking him, and he would never tell me. He said - this is not the right time, this is not the right time to talk,” Ark said.

Ark says his cousin became quiet and distant.

“He'd seen some bad things happening to good people. He couldn't understand why,” Ark said. “He would never mention the word suicide, or harming himself. That's not Scott.”

But on December 27th, 2016 - his family's worst fears were realized.
read more here