When Officers Are Pushed To Pull Trigger, They Hurt Too Distraught Persons Sometimes Want Police To Do The Killing

It’s known as officer-assisted suicide, a scenario in which police find themselves the unwitting pawns of people bent on killing themselves without having to pull the trigger.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s Lt. Nile Shirley still bears the physical and emotional scars from such an encounter in 1985.

Armed with a shotgun and distraught from a divorce, Richard Omey challenged sheriff’s deputies to come to his property so he could make “his last stand.”

For hours he fired round after round at officers. “You could hear the pellets hit the patrol cars,” Shirley said.

“Why don’t you shoot and kill me?” Omey shouted.

Officers eventually subdued the man, but not before he shot Shirley in the knee.

During his ride to jail, Omey asked officers, “What would it have taken for me to make you kill me?”

Paul Quinnett, a Spokane psychologist who counsels officers after shootings, said most people who choose this method of suicide believe being shot by an officer seems like an easier way out.

“It’s very hard to point a gun at yourself,” Quinnett said. “If you want to make sure it works, you want that trigger pulled by a trained marksman.”

Deputy Mike O’Brien believes Robert K. Mills Jr. intended to kill as many officers as he could.

“He was so dead set on having us kill him he would do anything to make us do it,” O’Brien said.

The deputy spent more than two hours in the cold rain trying to soothe Mills into a peaceful surrender.

The deputy called Mills “bud” and encouraged him to talk about his children. “I kept thinking I was making ground and then I’d lose it. My little handbag of tricks was empty.”

Quinnett said it can be especially hard on officers who spend a long time talking with the suicidal person. “You’ve got a significant investment in that person’s future. You know their name and their family.”

In the end, O’Brien shot Mills to save his own life.

“I was angry at him for making me do that,” O’Brien said. And, “I felt bad for him.”

, DataTimes