Post by Graveyardbride on Oct 28, 2014 10:21:49 GMT -5
Police Shoot Man Who Called Suicide Prevention Hotline
ROY, Utah – José Calzada, 35, placed a call to a suicide prevention hotline at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 21, and threatened to kill himself. Seven hours later, he was shot and killed by police. According to ABC 4, neighbors described Calzada as a quiet, friendly man, who was divorced and now lived in the home with his girlfriend and her children.
The first tragic mistake in this case was made when the Weber County Consolidated Dispatch Center sent officers to the residence rather than a crisis response team trained to deal with suicidal individuals. From previous cases, such as that of Jason Turk, who was shot twice in the face after a suicide call to 911 by his wife, or that of Christian Alberto Sierra, who was suffering from depression and had attempted suicide when police showed up and shot him four times, killing him, most know all too well what happens when you send officers to “assist” people threatening suicide.
Subsequently, a SWAT team came to the residence and “negotiated” with Calzada for more than seven hours before taking his life. “At some point those negotiations failed and unfortunately the SWAT team was involved in a shooting, and the subject is now deceased,” said Roy PD spokesman Matt Gwynn.
Eyewitness Ron Smith told the Standard-Examiner that he heard “one shot, and then a pause, and then four or five shots after that, that were very rapid.”
Specifics of the case have not been released, but according to Gwynn: “Officers are authorized to stop a threat whenever their life is threatened, or the life of another is threatened. And at that point if the officer feels he is justified, he may act to stop that threat. This is being treated as a officer assisted suicide or suicide by cops. We encourage those having suicidal thoughts or tendencies to contact a physician or expert that can talk them through it. In this particular case he attempted to do that – it’s unfortunate and sad that it failed.”
Source: Jay Syrmopoulos, TheFreeThoughtProject, October 23, 2014.
ROY, Utah – José Calzada, 35, placed a call to a suicide prevention hotline at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 21, and threatened to kill himself. Seven hours later, he was shot and killed by police. According to ABC 4, neighbors described Calzada as a quiet, friendly man, who was divorced and now lived in the home with his girlfriend and her children.
The first tragic mistake in this case was made when the Weber County Consolidated Dispatch Center sent officers to the residence rather than a crisis response team trained to deal with suicidal individuals. From previous cases, such as that of Jason Turk, who was shot twice in the face after a suicide call to 911 by his wife, or that of Christian Alberto Sierra, who was suffering from depression and had attempted suicide when police showed up and shot him four times, killing him, most know all too well what happens when you send officers to “assist” people threatening suicide.
Subsequently, a SWAT team came to the residence and “negotiated” with Calzada for more than seven hours before taking his life. “At some point those negotiations failed and unfortunately the SWAT team was involved in a shooting, and the subject is now deceased,” said Roy PD spokesman Matt Gwynn.
Eyewitness Ron Smith told the Standard-Examiner that he heard “one shot, and then a pause, and then four or five shots after that, that were very rapid.”
Specifics of the case have not been released, but according to Gwynn: “Officers are authorized to stop a threat whenever their life is threatened, or the life of another is threatened. And at that point if the officer feels he is justified, he may act to stop that threat. This is being treated as a officer assisted suicide or suicide by cops. We encourage those having suicidal thoughts or tendencies to contact a physician or expert that can talk them through it. In this particular case he attempted to do that – it’s unfortunate and sad that it failed.”
Source: Jay Syrmopoulos, TheFreeThoughtProject, October 23, 2014.
