Results tagged “suicide”

Last night at 16th and Valencia around 7 p.m.-ish, a man climbed atop a building and threatened to jump. The incident stopped a Trauma shoot, which was filming in the area.

The area just south of the East Meadow Drive crossing in Palo Alto has turned into something of a destination spot for depressed teenagers looking to end it all. Since May of this year, there have been three teen suicides at the spot. Last night, at around 10:50 pm, it played host to its fourth.

Yesterday, if you recall, SFist told you about 64-year-old Yvette Harden, the East Bay women who "fatally shot her handicapped daughter at an East Oakland skilled nursing facility Sunday night then killed herself with the same gun."

64-year-old Yvette Harden, according to the Oakland Tribune, "fatally shot her handicapped daughter at an East Oakland skilled nursing facility Sunday night then killed herself with the same gun." Harden had been living at the Oakland Springs Health Center since 2003. She left neither note nor any explanation as to why. This makes this the third incident "of its kind" in less than a week, reports The Chronicle. Apparently, a 17-year-old boy shot and killed his girlfriend before non-fatally shooting himself in Fremont on Friday, two days after a Vallejo resident "shot and gravely wounded a woman before shooting himself to death at the Motel 6 on Edes Avenue in East Oakland."

White men, according to a recent report released by the Marin County Coroner, are more likely to take the final plunge off of the Golden Gate Bridge. The report is an update to go along with a 15-year study that covered 330 confirmed deaths since 1994. Of the deaths researched, here are some interesting, for lack of a better word, statistics:

The Oakland Police Department revealed yesterday that "Officer Murray Hoyle committed suicide in an unincorporated area of Brentwood on Saturday." Hoyle, it seems, was with the OPD for more than 28 years. According to CBS 5/BCN, Hoyle "transferred to the traffic division, where he enjoyed enforcing traffic laws and riding a police motorcycle. He later transferred back to patrol and was well-known for working in the Montclair District." He is survived by his wife and three children, ages 22, 15, and 11. No word as to why, exactly, he took his own life. Sad. In related troubled East Bay police officer news, did anyone happen to catch last night's Intervention? It was about "Gloria," an alcoholic Concord police officer resident. Fortunately, she kicked the booze and no longer slaps her daughter or spends her rent money on booze. Congratulations, Gloria!

After three students from Gunn High School in Palo Alto committed suicide this year by lying down for their final nap at the East Meadow Drive crossing, Caltrain plans to hold a press conference today. With the most recent suicide occurring last week -- a 13-year-old girl killed herself a little before 11 p.m. on Friday night -- former Palo Alto Mayor Victor Ojakian, who lost his son to suicide, spoke out about the tragedies. "To make sure that individuals who are in a state of maybe despair or hopelessness know there are other options other than taking their lives," he said. "To look at not just what is happening on Caltrain or with this particular incident that involves another Gunn student but to look at the County overall and try and do something about suicide prevention." The Santa Clara County Mental Health Director also announced a new "suicide task force" to help curb the problem.

The bodies of a Walnut Creek woman and her son were found on Friday at the top of Mount Diablo. Their deaths appears to be the result of a mother-son murder-suicide. Judith Williams, 51, and her son Adam, 16, were found by authorities late last week after the two went for a hike. According to NBC Bay Area/Bay Area News, the scene looked premeditated as well. "They were there for several hours before Judith Williams apparently shot her son in the chest and the head and then shot herself in the head," NBC reports. Andy, it seems, was also very popular at his high school: played on the football team, played the saxophone. Also, the mom "appeared to have been having some financial problems and was upset about issues in a relationship between her ex-husband, Adam's father, and his new wife," which might have led to her snapping. (Ladies, rumor has it many of you have a multitude of complicated and multilayered feelings/emotions, ones that shouldn't always translate into rational thought or action. Please, if you plan on offing yourself, leave the offspring out of it. Thanks.)

The body of a 61-year-old woman was found at the Glen Park BART Station yesterday. The unidentified female body was discovered in the bushes just outside the station. BART spokesperson Linton Johnson confirms to the Appeal that "foul play is not suspected." BART police are investigating it as a suicide

Following on the heels of this week's Caltrain suicides, "a pedestrian was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Berkeley Thursday morning, the third person to be struck by a train in the Bay Area in a 24-hour period.," according to CBS 5. Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said that the unidentified male intentionally jumped out in front of the southbound train heading to Oakland near the Grayson Street crossing. On Wednesday night, just a few hours prior to the Amtrak death, a man hurled himself "into the side of a moving Caltrain at the Menlo Park station." He is expected to live. The Amtrak victim, however, died at the scene.

Proving that this newfangled locomotive technology will do society more harm than good, Catrain confirmed this morning that a woman was struck and killed by a train at a Palo Alto railroad crossing yesterday. According to reports, "[a] northbound train struck the victim who had apparently made her way on to the tracks near a crossing at East Meadow Drive at around 9:55 p.m." This makes the fourth train-related fatality of 2009.

The man who gained national fame in the early 90s for attending classes at U.C. Berkeley wearing nothing but a G-string, Luis Andrew Martinez a.k.a. The Naked Guy, met his end in a Santa Clara County jail cell where he cinched a plastic bag around his neck and died of suffocation in May 2006. It turns out he was schizophrenic, and after proving "people define normalcy in their own terms" and ultimately getting expelled from Cal, he was in and out of jails and mental institutions where he did not always receive appropriate care. His mother, Esther Krenn, brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and yesterday won a $1M settlement on the grounds of "reckless disregard or deliberate indifference" to her son's condition.

Caltrain has claimed the life of another pedestrian in two weeks. This morning, a man was struck at the San Mateo station. According to reports, "he collision happened at 6:43 a.m. when southbound train No. 206 struck the man who Caltrain characterized as a trespasser on the tracks near 25th Avenue." It is not yet know whether or not this most recent fatality was an accident or suicide. Northbound and southbound trains are operating at normal speed, but you can "expect delays of 45-60 minutes" today. If you recall, a man and a woman, in separate incidents, sat down on the tracks at the San Antonio station earlier this month.

Actress Demi Moore (AKA mrskutcher) helped save the life of a woman this morning with the help of Twitter. According to MSNBC, a woman (sandieguy) sent Moore messages saying, “@mrskutcher I'm just wondering if anyone cares that I'm gonna kill myself now,” "getting a knife,a big one that is sharp. Going to cut my arm down the whole arm so it doesn't waste time," and "gbye...gonna kill myself now."

Egads. The dead bodies of a man and woman were discovered inside a Excelsior motel room this morning by the manager, located on the 5000 block of Mission Street. Police are labeling their deaths as a murder-suicide. According to the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office, the two died from gunshot wounds. Police have yet to reveal their identities.

Remember how Hassan Ben Ali committed suicide in front of Berkeley police last week? Then, after doing a search of Ali's Ashby Avenue apartment, the police found an entombed body at his residence? Well, it turns out the dead body, -- which was discovered "wrapped up and hidden behind a wall in the laundry room of the complex," according to reports -- was Hassan 's son, Taruk Joseph Ben Ali. It is believed that the latter died of a drug overdose in 2004. Allegedly. Anyway, it turns out his father was keeping his corpse behind a false wall (lined with air fresheners!) in an effort to get free rent. The Chronicle says that "Benali had owned the property, and police believe Bin Ali hid his son's body to continue collecting rent." (Huh?) Although according to KNTV, "[b]oth father and son had been living in and managing the apartment complex," our local rag claims that a "tenant of the building has told The Chronicle that in recent years [Taruk] had been paying rent to Bin Ali, who said he was collecting on behalf of his son." So...yeah. When we know more, we'll update.

Berkeley resident 60-year-old Hassan Bin Ali shot and killed himself on Monday night, leading to the discovery of an entombed body inside his Ashby Avenue residence. After police officers responded to a report of a heated argument going down at Ali's apartment -- and after his sudden suicide, which happened right in front of the cops at the scene -- remains of an unidentified body were found last night during a search. The macabre discovery is, of course, "being treated as suspicious."

      

Trey Blog came across the scene of a failed suicide attempt, which happened a few weeks ago. The images are sad yet fascinating. Someone, it seems, jumped from the top of a Fell Street apartment building in a suicide attempt and smashed into a car windshield. A small note was left behind detailing the events. We hope the victim is alive and well.

The bodies of the two unidentified thirtysomethings were found by a roommate on Monday, over at 215 Missouri Street. According to homicide detectives, both victims were shot. Not much detail has been released yet. We'll update as soon as we know more. But do you know something? Let us know in the comments. (SFGate)

While most mainstream media outlets have an unwritten rule about not covering suicides (since they might lead to more, or something like that), CBS 5 sees them for what they really are: traffic gold. Anyway, word is "a person has apparently committed suicide by gun aboard an Amtrak train near Jack London Square in Oakland." There's a live cam above the scene if you want to check out all the gory details. (Update: the live cam has been removed. Boo!) Also, here's more on why MSM tends not to report on suicides.

Leapin' lizards! Estimations for the suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge, which initially ran anywhere from $15 million to $25 million, would now cost around $50 million, at least according to environmental assessment released Monday by the Golden Gate Bridge District. The pimped out bridge might include the following: An 8-foot vertical fencing system to the existing 4-foot-tall hand railt; an 8-foot-tall horizontal fencing system to the 4-foot-tall hand rail with a "winglet" or panel on top; replacing the 4-foot-tall hand rail with a 12-foot-tall vertical fence; replacing the 4-foot-tall handrail with a 10-foot-tall horizontal fence with a winglet on top, for a total height of 10 feet; and installing a horizontal net system 20 feet below the sidewalk that extends 20 feet from the bridge. (But can't the distraught just jump over the netting after the first plunge?) The bridge sees an average of two suicides per month.

Remember the man accused of killing two strip club patrons earlier this week in Sunnyvale? Well, last night the suspect, 29-year-old Matthew Andrew O'Reilly, was spotted by the fuzz, a chase ensued onto the westbound Interstate 380, O'Reilly crashed right into the center divide at El Camino Real, and then turned a gun on himself.

While most mainstream media didn't cover last week's suicide, which happened last Thursday on Powell Streets H&M/The Odeon building, an SFist commenter pointed out that the Examiner did. Their article on the noontime tragedy was quite revealing:

We just received the following, rather tragic alert from a reader:

An unidentified man killed himself this morning after running his car into parked cars at 80 mph at Yolo and the Alameda. Just before the fatal wreck, it seems, he was sitting in his car in North Berkeley and in the process of taking his own life, via a tube coming out of the car's exhaust pipe. A homeless man noticed what was going on, removed the tube. The homeless gent then flagged down a Sargent Patty Delaluna at Bancroft Way and Fulton Street for help. According to the Gate:

According to KCRA 3, a 64-year-old man with a "Free Tibet" strung around his neck killed himself "late Monday night outside the Marina District home of his former landlord." It seems that the still unidentified man used a gun to take his own life.

Some of you may remember a couple of weeks ago, when we were on a Caltrain that struck and killed a woman near 22nd street. Well, we were on the train again this morning, and when we got on at mountain view, a very familiar voice came over the PA.

Marin County coroner's office identified that the body found atop Mt. Tam this past Sunday afternoon as female and, yes, Veronica Ruiz. It seems that she "the Internal Revenue Service agent's service weapon was found at her side and her U.S. Treasury Department photo identification was found in her purse at the place of her death," according to a report on CBS 5. (IRS agents have issued arms? Huh.) It appears that she died of "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."

A few things here:

Well, the bad news is still that we've hit a 12 year high for homicides in the City and County of San Francisco, with two weeks left to go in the year. On the statistical side, though, the SFPD year to date murder count has moved down by three victims, from 100 to 97.