Homicide or suicide: the killing of suicidal persons by law enforcement officers

Police Officers who Commit Suicide by Cop: A Clinical Study with Analysis

“…The FBI Behavioral Science Unit provided the two cases from a national sample of suicide by cop incidents. The demographic characteristics of the two police officers who committed suicide by cop (see Table 1) are similar to those of nonpolice officers who commit suicide by cop in age (3,5,9), race and gender (3), display of weapons (3), length of incident (3), and psychopathology (9). In the case of A.A., there was no evidence that he had planned the suicide by cop incident and past research has found that 49% of suspects showed no evidence of planning (9).…”

“…These findings suggest that the presence of a social network does not function as a protective factor in this type of suicide as it might in other types of suicide (11,12). And like civilian cases (3,5,9) both of our subjects had weapons on them at the time of the incident; A.A. had an unloaded firearm (and used his vehicle as a weapon) while B.B. had a loaded handgun and had many unloaded firearms available in his store.…”

“…For example, both incidents took c. 17 min from start to finish, consistent with previous findings (3). Both subjects were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident (3,5); one study (3) found that 65% of civilians were under the influence during the suicide by cop incident while another study found the prevalence rate of substance use at the time of suicide to be 53% (5). Both subjects appeared to have had social support networks (including friends and/or family) also consistent with previous research which has shown that only 8% of the victims of a suicide by cop incident have no support group (4).…”

“…Wolfgang (1) was the first to describe instances of victim precipitated homicide; however, it was Geberth (2) who first reported cases of individuals who committed suicide by getting a police officer to shoot them. Several definitions of suicide by cop have been offered, each emphasizing different aspects of the incident (2–5). The most recent explication was provided by Pinizzotto et al.…”

Death Certification of “Suicide by Cop”

“…A death certification of “suicide by cop” is controversial among some medical examiners and coroners (ME/C) (1–3). Typically, a violent death at the hand of another is certified as a homicide.…”