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Early in the morning on Feb. 8, a Seattle police sergeant came face-to-face with a man who wanted to commit "suicide by cop." According to a department spokesperson, it is a scenario that officers encounter quite often and are trained to deal with. (Photo: AP)

Officers forced to confront 'selfish' act of suicide by cop

BY Brandi Kruse  on February 14, 2013 @ 4:00 pm (Updated: 10:08 pm - 2/14/13 )

Seattle police Sgt. Gabriel Shank had never shot anyone before.

But standing just steps from the door of the East Precinct on Seattle's Capitol Hill he came very close.

"There were three opportunities were he actually had taken one step at me," he said. "Each time I thought for sure I was going to have to pull the trigger."

It was early one morning in the middle of 12th Avenue and Sgt. Shank was face-to-face with someone determined to commit suicide by cop. The man was armed with a knife, which he used just moments earlier to cut his left forearm so deep that the gash exposed his bone.

He told Sgt. Shank to kill him.

"He wanted to die at that moment."

It is a situation that happens not infrequently for officers, according to Det. Renee Witt, a Seattle Police Department spokesperson. A similar incident happened on Jan. 29, when a man brought a gun to the Southwest precinct and put it to his head.

"We see these quite often actually," Witt said. "You know, our officers are trained to deal with people who are in distress."

Back in front of the East Precinct, Sgt. Shank radioed to his colleagues, who were inside just feet away.

"One-Charlie," he said. "I have a man at gunpoint with a knife in his hand."

Police Sgt. Susanna Monroe ran outside.

"Sgt. Shank had his gun out and I saw this person standing in the middle of the street," she said. "It was very obvious he was crouched, ready to start running at us."

With his gun drawn, Sgt. Shank tried to talk the man down.

"'Man you don't want to do this. This is a bad idea,'" he said. "'I don't want to (kill you).'"

After "what felt like forever," the man began to lose consciousness and dropped to the ground. He had lost a lot of blood and was rushed to Harborview Medical Center for treatment and a mental health evaluation.

It wasn't until after he filed his report that Sgt. Shank had time to reflect on what just happened.

"He targeted me because I was a police officer and he knew that I had a weapon and he also knew that I would defend myself," he said. "That's the hardest part that I have, is that he targeted me just because of something that I do."

Although she said she felt empathy for man, Sgt. Monroe called his act selfish.

"It's horrific that he would force that on somebody else - to take his life."

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Brandi Kruse, KIRO Radio Reporter
Brandi Kruse is a reporter for KIRO Radio who is as spontaneous and adventurous in her free time as she is on the job. Brandi arrived at KIRO Radio in March 2011 and has already collected three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her reporting.
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Comments (13)


  • Add A Comment

  • hpitantso wrote...
    Sgt. Gabriel Shank
    February 14, 2013 5:20 pm
    Should head all training in his dept.Example of good training works for good cop
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cash wrote...
    Nice Job SPD!
    February 14, 2013 6:45 pm
    I can assure you there are thousands of stories like this one with local police departments across the region and it just take someone like Brandi to finally look into and report them. Yes there are incidents where cops did something stupid or illegal but this is the norm.

    AJ I promise you none of the cops here want to find ourselves in the situation in the way you are implying. Cops don't want to kill anyone; especially in a situation like this. Thank you Brandi for doing this, it is high time someone around here shows what the job is like and how most officers react the majority of the time!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • pvpnova wrote...
    Umm
    February 14, 2013 8:56 pm
    Yeah, it's really "selfish" for someone with severe mental illness to try to stop the the only way they know how, because inevitably the system gives up on mental health cases early on. I'm sure he's just being thrown around the system now in utter misery. I seriously doubt that man was in control of his own action at the time, so shaming him and calling HIM selfish is not the answer, and what adds to stigma against mental health. Instead of calling him "selfish" and boo-hooing the cops traumatic experience, why not actually look into fixing the terribly broken system that causes people to do things like this rather than be thrown back into it?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Fatwa wrote...
    Good point on mental illness
    February 15, 2013 10:06 am
    But I wouldn’t expect sensitivity from this pro-cop radio station or pro-cop reporter.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • rbd wrote...
    irony
    February 15, 2013 10:28 am
    Focus on reality please. A suicidal mentally ill person is in need of help from his community. People in the republican party and libertarians are SELFISH when they cut social services and support tax cuts for the rich. You are being short sighted, ignorant and retarded by calling a mentally ill person selfish.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Fatwa wrote...
    Mental Illness
    February 15, 2013 11:37 am
    Yes ... the mentally ill are "selfish" - despicable piece of reporting. The mentally ill are in need of help and assistance.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • dexterjibs wrote...
    i wonder how much praise people
    February 14, 2013 10:33 pm
    would give this officer if an officer was stabbed to death because he failed to shoot someone when it was completely justified? Fortunately everything turned out ok for everyone. This only affirms the twisted thought in AJ's mind that cops should shoot no one in any circumstance.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Why do people jump off bridges?
    February 15, 2013 12:17 am
    Some of these same people might have a deep seated hate of authority and "use" a Police officer to do the job.Looks like we have a mental illness problem , possibly we can finally find a good use for OBAMACARE and take care of these people.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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