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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Suicide threats wear on responders


Kellee Gately, right, of the Spokane Police Department, talks to 911 operators and other first responders about how to take calls from the public in emergency situations Wednesday. At left is Tammi Choate of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. 
 (Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)

A Spokane man diagnosed with cancer stood at the edge of the Monroe Street Bridge.

A meth addict, fearing domestic violence charges, dangled his feet from the ledge of a four-story building.

An unemployed man worried about making his child support payments stood ready to fall to his death.

None of the men actually took his own life, but only because authorities spent hours convincing them that whatever their problems, they could be resolved.

“We’re there as long as it takes,” said Spokane police Officer Tim Moses.

Suicide attempts are becoming more common, local law officers say, and that means time away from solving or preventing crimes such as burglaries, stolen cars and low-level thefts.

A suicide attempt is a top priority, meaning officers will drop whatever they’re doing and go. And depending on the circumstances, the effort can take hours, several officers and, sometimes, more than one agency.

Spokane police are called to more than four suicide attempts per day, based on crime analysis data. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office responds to about two such calls per day, officials say.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department and Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department are also experiencing an increased volume of distraught people.

“We definitely have a higher incident rate,” said Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Kim Edmondson, detective division commander.

Spokane police and mental health officials say a decrease in funds for mental health services and increased drug use – especially methamphetamine – have contributed to the rise in suicide attempts.

“Mental health services aren’t equipped with the resources they need to help people,” Edmondson said.

“We know that treatment works,” said AJ Hutsell, injury prevention specialist at Spokane Regional Health District. “Ninety percent of the time if people get the treatment they need then they won’t go to that place again, but the treatment isn’t readily available.”

Traditionally, there are three main reasons for suicides: “helpless, hapless and hopeless,” said Spokane police Lt. Judi Carl, who commands the department’s hostage negotiation team.

Carl refers to law enforcements efforts as “community caretaking.”

“We aren’t there to enforce the law,” she said. “We are there in a crisis-intervention capacity.”

Suicides and attempts are not typically covered in the news. The act is primarily private and not illegal, and there are concerns that publicity can lead to copycats. So reporters typically only cover a suicide when it becomes a public event, such as a would-be jumper who ties up traffic on a cross-river bridge, or a student who commits suicide in a school.

Police say that while a majority of their calls involve people who won’t make repeated attempts, there are exceptions.

“Sometimes we’ll deal with a person three or four times, and then the person completes it,” said Spokane police Officer Kellee Gately, who is a member of the department’s hostage negotiation team. “Then you are left with wondering what else you could have done to help.”

When a person commits suicide despite police efforts, it takes an emotional toll. Officers spend several hours talking about what happened and how they’re feeling.

Moses said everyone involved – sometimes including officers who guarded the perimeter of where the suicide took place – are put in a room with a chaplain, a counselor and their peers. They’re told they can talk freely without fear of it leaving the room.

“There’s a sense of responsibility because we feel we’re part of the system and wonder how the person fell through the cracks,” Gately said. “That’s when you really debrief among your peers. So you know you did everything you could do, and then some.”

Police were publicly criticized for their handling of a 20-hour standoff with a suicidal man this summer on the Monroe Street Bridge. The case was highly public and covered by the media, in part because traffic was affected. It involved every person on the Spokane police negotiation team, as well as other officers – hundreds of hours of manpower.

The man, Josh Levy, had a history of attempting suicide in Western Washington. Police eventually used a Taser on him, but only one prong made contact. He jumped to his death.

Levy’s father, David Breidenbach, has said in previous interviews that police should have done more to save his son.

But, Carl said, the officers involved were devastated. One of those officers was Moses, who spent 12 hours talking with Levy.

“We were angry that we lost,” Moses said. “Our job is to save a life. You don’t want to see anybody die.

“We’re successful most of the time on the people we talk to,” he said.

For many first responders, there’s a single incident that stands out above others.

For Spokane County sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan, it was a woman who was on the phone with a counselor, threatening to shoot herself. The counselor made two calls while listening to the woman say that she’d been sober for several months but had fallen off the wagon. The first call was to the woman’s husband. The second was to law enforcement.

“I arrive and see her in the basement, a rifle leaning up against her knees – a phone in one hand and a beer in the other,” Reagan said. He didn’t go in. He waited for a second deputy. “Then we hear screeching tires out front.”

It was her husband. Either she saw one of the deputies or heard the car, officials don’t know which. The husband ran in, and “we go in right after him,” Reagan said.

They never heard a shot. But when deputies found her, she was dead in a closet.

“I lost sleep over this one,” Reagan said. “My emotional response was I was angry because she didn’t give me a chance to save her. And I was angry at the counselor for calling the spouse before she called us.

“I had seen her alive just 15 to 20 seconds before, and thinking I had a chance. It puts a different take on it.”