Apparent Suicide From Sunset Rock At Lookout Mountain At Chattanooga Tennessee

A woman fell 90 feet from Sunset Rock at Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee last Tuesday. She has been identified as Sarah Hunt of Chattanooga.

Ms. Hunt was a native of Great Lakes, Ill., and was a graduate of Hixson High School and UTC with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, writes The Chattanoogan.

Park Rangers were able to make contact with Hunt’s family on Wednesday evening.

The family told investigators that Hunt had previously been treated for a mental illness and that a suicide note was found at the home, according to Todd Roeder, chief ranger at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.  Sunset Rock belongs to that system of parks.

“The investigation is now finished,” Roeder said, according to timesfreepress.com. “The medical examiner did not find any signs of foul play and her injuries seem to be the result of a fall of that kind.”

Hunt’s body was found on a trail at the bottom of Sunset Rock by two hikers, writes timesfreepress.com.

They attempted CPR and called 911 around 5:15 p.m., writes timesfreepress.com. When emergency personnel arrived on scene they determined that Hunt was dead.

Murder-Suicide In South Carolina Kills 4

Police found the bodies of four people, including a local official, who’d been shot to death inside a Rock Hill, South Carolina, home on Sunday.

Authorities are not looking for a suspect in the case, which is being called an apparent murder-suicide, according to NBC News.

The victims have been identified as a man and his wife, her son and the son’s girlfriend, writes People Magazine.

Anna Moore worked as the Assistant Manager for York County in South Carolina. supervising Animal Control, the Department of Fire Safety, Emergency Management, the detention center, Public Safety Communications and the Summer Feeding Program, according to The Rock Hill Herald.

York County is near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Grandmother Shoots Daughter, Grandchildren in Florida Murder-Suicide

A woman shot her daughter and her two small grandchildren before reportedly killing herself inside the Greenacres, Florida, home they shared, police said Sunday.

Grandmother Nilda Sheffield, 53, shot her daughter Elizabeth Flores, 30, and grandchildren Xavier Neff, 7, and Sofia Chiddo, 2, said Greenacres police Lieutenant Brady Myers, according to the NBC News.

Police are searching for a motive in the apparent murder-suicide in the 4600 block of Chariot Circle in Greenacres, Florida.

The horrific crime scene was discovered by a family friend at about 12 noon on Saturday, Lieutenant Myers said.

“That friend told authorities they had not been accounted for since Friday evening,” Myers said.

A group of young adults and small children gathered at the edge of yellow police tape in the neighborhood on Saturday, at times weeping and hugging each other, writes NBC News.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3142570/Grandmother-shot-killed-daughter-grandchildren-aged-2-7-taking-life.html

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Grandmother-Shoots-Daughter-Grandchildren-in-Murder-Suicide-Police-310519521.html

Cincinnati Man Set ‘Trap’ For Police: Suicide By Cop?

WCPO.com

Trepierre Hummons called 911 then waited with a gun for police to arrive, according to Cincinnati police. When they did, he shot and killed 48-year-old Officer Sonny Kim, a husband and father of three, police said.

Then he opened fire on two more officers, said Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell.

Not long before, he had made a Facebook post that seemed to indicate a plan to commit suicide by cop, according to CNN.

The police, while armed, didn’t know what they’d walked into. When when the 21-year-old Hummons called the emergency operator, he didn’t hint at his plan.

Earlier, he had pretended to be a concerned witness who’d seen a man acting erratically with a gun, according to 911 and dispatch tapes released by police.  Then he gave a description of himself in a shaky voice. “Very early 20s … about like 5 (foot) 6 … he’s a little thick fellow.”

The operator took down his name and number.  Hummons thanked her. The dispatcher notified a policeman in the area.

Hummons dialed 911 again to make sure police were on their way, and he repeated his location.

The dispatcher notified the policeman again. “Copy, I’m in the area,” the officer answered her before bursting into shouts: “Shots fired! Shots fired!”

Hummons wounded Kim multiple times in spite of the protective vest he wore, the police chief said. And when a probation officer arrived moments later, Hummons shot at him, too.

At some point, Hummons’ mother came out to the street.

“The suspect then returned to Police Officer Kim, who was lying wounded on the street and began to fight with him in an effort to take the officer’s firearm,” Police Chief Blackwell said.

Kim struggled as he bled, but couldn’t hang on to his weapon. A third officer, Tom Sandmann, arrived, and Hummons used Kim’s gun to fire at him. But Sandmann returned fire and wounded Hummons.

Both Hummons and Kim later died at a hospital, according to CNN.

Murder – Suicide In St. Louis County

On Thursday, a mother and her adult son were found dead in a home in Wildwood, St. Louis county, Missouri, after an apparent murder-suicide, said police.  According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, authorities believe Eric Scherrer, 23, shot and killed his mother, Janet Scherrer, 54, then killed himself.

Someone called a neighbor about 8 p.m. Thursday night, concerned about the Scherrers, according to police.  The neighbor checked the ranch-style home the Scherrers shared in the 4600 block of Fox Crest Drive and found Janet Scherrer unresponsive, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

 Authorities arrived and found both Scherrers dead inside.

Police did not know a motive in the murder-suicide.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-kills-mother-then-self-in-murder-suicide-at-wildwood/article_106cf6a9-1d7a-5d79-adee-c6a2027cd5d0.html

http://fox2now.com/2015/06/19/police-investigating-possible-murder-suicide-near-wildwood/

Take The Money And Run?

A 15-year-old boy stole a handgun and money from a relative’s Palm Bay, Florida home Sunday before he and his 16-year-old girlfriend headed north on Interstate 95 to the boy’s home state, according to deputies.

The Orlando Sentinel states that Zane Terryn and his 16-year-old girlfriend wanted to die together in Ohio, authorities claimed.

A state trooper’s inquiry about the teenagers’ broken headlight at a Pilot Travel Center in Cocoa about 9:45 p.m. halted their plan when Terryn started shooting at the trooper.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Channing Taylor was shot in the shoulder and he then fired back at Terryn, which killed him.

Terryn’s girlfriend tried to escape in her vehicle but soon struck a boat that was being pulled by a pickup on State Road 520.

She was charged with attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer and second-degree murder.

Are the charges appropriate?

The attempted-murder charge is from the trooper’s injury, authorities said.  She did not pull the trigger, but authorities say she played a “key role” in the shooting.

“[S]he provided access to the firearm. It was in her truck [that] they traveled in,” said Florida Highway Patrol Major Tod Goodyear, “and she fled the scene after the event.”

The murder charge is from her boyfriend’s death.  She did not shoot her boyfriend.  However, “(s)ince a person died while she and the deceased suspect were in the commission of a felony crime, she was charged with felony murder,” Goodyear said.

She is being held without bond.

So, it seems that an unarmed 16-year-old girl is being charged for the murder of her boyfriend and the attempted murder of a police officer.

Officer Taylor is recovering from the shoulder wound, which was treated at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.  He has since been released from the hospital.  He is on paid administrative leave, said Major Goodyear.

“Lieutenant Taylor is currently on paid administrative leave and is recuperating from his injuries, which is the normal practice in cases of this nature,” Goodyear wrote in a statement Monday.

Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) claims that the teens were traveling to Ohio – Terryn’s home state – to commit suicide.

The teens had stopped at the gas station to get food. Officer Taylor noticed the broken headlight and walked over to the teens to talk about the “safety equipment problem,” the release said.

While Taylor was talking to the girlfriend, who was in the driver’s seat, “Terryn, who was the passenger in the vehicle, produced a firearm and began shooting at the trooper,” Goodyear said.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is looking into the use of force with a parallel but independent investigation.

Taylor began his career as a trooper in 1994.  He was promoted to lieutenant in 2007 and is supervisor of traffic homicide for the Brevard district.

It’s unclear whom Terryn lived with in Palm Bay.

The girlfriend is also from the same city in Brevard County.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crimeline at 800-423-8477 as the investigations continue.

(Updated article)

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/06/15/investigators-teen-shooter-driver-made-suicide-pact/71258284/

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-zane-terryn-dead-trooper-shooting-20150615-story.html

http://www.floridatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2015/06/15/photos-trooper-involved-shooting-near-cocoa/71237224/

Murder-Suicide Near Tempe, AZ

Two people were killed Tuesday morning near Tempe, Arizona, in what police believe was a murder-suicide, according to a police spokesman.

Police said David Joseph Engel, 40, fatally shot his estranged wife, 45-year-old April Louise Engel, and then turned the gun on himself at an apartment near University Drive and Greenfield Road in Mesa, writes AZ Central.

Police said say Joseph Engel had recently been served divorce papers by April, according to YourWestValley.

AZ Central reports that the couple had a history of domestic violence that started in 2008, when David Engel was arrested on suspicion of assaulting April Engel, police say.

http://www.yourwestvalley.com/valleyandstate/article_3699b762-0985-11e5-ab44-5b6c2da8ce54.html

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2015/06/02/mesa-police-murder-suicide-greenfield-abrk/28346387/

http://www.kpho.com/story/29215404/estranged-couple-dead-in-shooting-at-mesa-apartment-complex

Another Death From The Epidemic Of Violence And Bullying In The U.S.

A California teen who killed himself after years of bullying has sparked a community discussion about the destructive behavior while raising questions among his family about the way he was treated.

Adam Kizer, a 16-year-old sophomore at Sonoma Valley High School near San Francisco, died Saturday at a hospital after being taken off life support, his family said.

He hung himself four days earlier and did not respond to life-saving efforts, said his father, William Kizer.

Mr. Kizer said his son had been a target of bullying since elementary school in Wyoming, where other kids once bound him and poured gasoline on him.

According to pressdemocrat.com, the abuse continued in Sonoma after the family moved there in 2011, with students at Sonoma Valley High picking on the slightly built teen with shaggy hair, encouraging him to take his own life, the father said.

In a show of community support, about 200 people attended a vigil Sunday night at the Sonoma Plaza. Makeshift shrines could be seen at a park near the school as well as on campus, where students were taking final exams before the end of the school year.

(Updated article)

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4010404-181/suicide-of-sonoma-teen-sparks

Films Remember Vets Who Die From Suicide

Recently, the Military Times wrote about The GI Film Festival that hosted two films in Fairfax, Virginia, on Memorial Day weekend.  The two films honored those who have died from self-inflicted wounds or whose lives are at risk because of Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The films from last Saturday were inspired by the high suicide rate among veterans, with roughly 22 returning veterans taking their own lives each day, according to a February 2013 Veterans Affairs Department report.

The first movie, titled SAM, was an artistic film that looks at veteran suicide through the life of a young man returning from service in Afghanistan to find nothing has changed except himself, writes The Military Times.

The film is based on a short story by Juan Garcia and directed by Alexis Garcia Rocca, and seeks to raise awareness about the debilitating and sometimes deadly effects of PTSD.

“It was to put a face to the statistic, because a lot of people don’t have a military connection,” Garcia Rocca said. “I come from a military family, and that’s what brought me to the issue, and this was kind of made for everyone else — to be made aware that this exists.”

The second film was Project 22, which follows two wounded veterans – Scott Hansen and Doc King – on a 6,500-mile motorcycle ride to raise awareness about veteran suicide.

They reveal their own story of struggle and recovery as they meet with advocates, program directors and researchers along the way. Many veterans they speak to open up about their struggles and the painful reality of life with PTSD and even suicide attempts.

“I always feel like I gave a piece of my soul – that’s one way to put it. You come home different – mentally, physically, yeah – but I felt like I left part of my soul in Iraq,” says Ahmed Uddin, one of the veterans interviewed in the documentary.

“This country is absolutely not doing enough for these guys when they come back,” said audience member Beaux Watson, according to The Military Times.

(Updated article)

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/entertainment/2015/05/25/on-memorial-day-remembering-veterans-who-die-from-suicide/27908973/

Would Right To Die Law Allow Doctors To Lie On Death Certificate?

After 23 years of attempts to legalize assisted suicide in California, lawmakers and lobbyists may have finally found a strategy that works: they just won’t call it suicide, writes the National Review.

Entitled the “End of Life Option Act,” California Senate Bill 128 mandates that “the cause of death listed on an individual’s death certificate who uses aid-in-dying medication shall be the underlying terminal illness,” not the lethal dose of poison that actually caused the individual’s death.

So, doctors would simply be allowed to lie on the death certificate.

Advocates of assisted suicide coined the term “aid in dying” and came up with the idea that killing oneself does not qualify as suicide if you have a life expectancy of six months or less.

However, it appears that it is not palatable enough to list the preferred misnomer, “aid in dying,” as the cause of death and that the only way lawmakers and lobbyists feel they can sell assisted suicide is to falsify public records.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418623/californias-assisted-suicide-measure-would-mean-falsified-death-certificates