After Kim Conover, 31, paid a visit to her divorce attorney on Sunday afternoon, her estranged husband, Kevin Covover, 35, shot and killed her outside said lawyer's office, later turning the gun on himself. "The 2 p.m. shooting happened in front of 10 Keller St., a small office building where the woman had been visiting the attorney," reports The Press Democrat, adding, " Kevin Conover died at 5 p.m. at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Police identified him as the shooter and said his wound appears to have been self-inflicted." more ›

"I'm sure there's a Shit Someone Says video out there you haven't seen yet, but why not skip it and watch this surprisingly moving It Gets Better video from the SFPD," notes SF Appeal's Eve Batey, who first reported on the video. And she's right. The video, just released today by the San Francisco Police Department, showcases several queer officers telling their stories of growing up as gay youths. It's quite touching. more ›

A new mobile phone app and a new service/button on Facebook are trying to help the suicide prevention cause. The smartphone app, specifically geared toward soldiers and military vets, is called Guard Your Buddy, and it's being released by the Tennessee National Guard in conjunction with the 375th anniversary of the National Guard. On Facebook, they're adding a feature whereby when a friend spots a suicidal status update or comment, they can click a link next to the comment that immediately puts the person in touch with a suicide prevention hotline via Facebook chat. (For the record, we still cannot find this feature on the site, but it's supposed to launch today.) more ›

Around 11:20 p.m. last night a man jumped down from a stairwell onto the BART platform at Colma station and in front of an oncoming train in an apparent suicide, according to witnesses. BART immediately shut off electricity to the third rail and train service was temporarily disrupted. Passengers aboard the train were put onto another train to reach their destinations. more ›

San Francisco Police claim they've recovered the gun involved in the shooting death of Kenneth Harding. No weapon was found at the scene initially, leading many to believe fare officers were at fault for the killing. It was later revealed that Harding died from a bullet separate from the bullets used by the cops. Eve Batey at SF Appeal now reports that police claim they recovered the gun. more ›

What authorities initially claimed as a justifiable self-defense killing, SFPD now says that Kenneth Harding died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. "Police had originally said Harding had turned and fired at the officers, who returned fire and fatally struck him," reports SF Appeal. "However, the bullet believed to have killed Harding was removed from his head by the medical examiner, who discovered it was a .380-caliber bullet, which is not consistent with the service ammunition used by San Francisco police." more ›

The man who shot and killed himself outside the SFPD Mission Station on Valencia Street was identified today as Eric Swenson, a 64-year-old San Francisco resident who was also the co-founder of popular skateboarding magazine Thrasher. An announcement on the magazine's website had this to say: more ›

An unidentified man committed suicide outside the SFPD MIssion station Monday morning. "The incident was reported at about 9 a.m. outside the doors of the police station at 630 Valencia," reports SF Appeal. "The victim apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound." No word yet why, exactly, the victim wanted to take his life in front of a police station. Very sad. more ›

An unidentified man, who is described as being in his 40s, reportedly stopped his car in the middle of traffic on the westbound side of the Bay Bridge this afternoon at about 2:45 p.m. Witnesses say he then jumped the rail and climbed onto the ledge of the upper deck of the bridge's western span, near the far right lane, just past the Treasure Island exit. more ›

A man died in an apparent suicide on the train tracks in Burlingame this afternoon. SFGate reports: "The northbound train hit the man on the right-of-way at Peninsula Avenue shortly before 12:20 p.m.," which resulted in a 90-minute delay. more ›

Barry Zito, Sergio Romo, and Matt Cain are just a few of the San Francisco Giants who took part in the "It Gets Better" campaign, a LGBT anti-suicide project spearheaded by Dan Savage. Here's the video they shot to tell young queer teens that, in fact, being gay does get better as you grow up. more ›

California Highway Patrol confirmed on Wednesday that there was evidence that 15-year-old missing Danville teen, Allison Bayliss, committed suicide. Allison had been reported missing on Monday when her family found her bike parked near the Golden Gate Bridge. more ›

One women and two men are dead after a murder-suicide in Farfield on Saturday. BCN (via KTVU) reports: "The relationships and motivation for the shooting on the 5200 block of Venus Drive are still unclear, Fairfield police Officer Cleo Mayoral said. Police expect to release a more detailed timeline of events at the shooting, which appears to have started as a domestic dispute." more ›

It's been confirmed that the 16-year-old girl who survived a fall off the Golden Gate Bridge this morning was attempting to commit suicide. California Highway Patrol spokesman Patrick Roth told Contra Costa Times (via Mercury News) that the girl was visiting from Southern California with her family and had handed her sister a diary containing a suicide note at some point beforehand. more ›

Kurt Cobain committed suicide inside his Lake Washington home 17 years ago today. MTV's Kurt Loder broke the news to a stunned Gen X audience, and the rest was history. In honor of the canonized musician, here is Nirvana performing "Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam" at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington, 1991. more ›

This is a gruesome and sad tale: A man in his 30s or 40s took a taxi at 9:30 Saturday morning to a freeway overpass along I-580 at Airway Boulevard in Livermore, made the cab stop, got out, went over to the guardrail, sat on it facing the road below, leaned forward, and dropped off to his death. The CHP subsequently shut down two lanes of 580 for about two hours. Police are still looking for the cab company and driver, who has not come forward. [Bay City News/Tribune] more ›

Described as "an intentional act" by Caltrain authorities, an unidentified 19-year-old Palo Alto man was struck and killed this morning by a train in Palo Alto. Happening just after midnight, "the man was hit on the train tracks about four-tenths of a mile north of the California Avenue station at a location where there is no vehicle or pedestrian crossing." more ›

The Examiner posted a story about Twitter user Nick Starr, who publicly threatened on Twitter to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in 2008, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay in 2007, and most recently the Bay Bridge on Monday. Starr, who had been a subject of a 2007 New York Times article about the emerging impact of social media on real-life interactions, continues to use Twitter as a platform for expressing his depression. more ›

The body of a 15-year-old boy believed to be the twin of another 15-year-old apprehended by police was found in a ravine yesterday in an unincorporated area near Hayward. As the Chron's reporting, police arrived at the scene after receiving reports of a burglary in progress. They found one of the boys in the house on Beckham Lane, with the gas turned on. He slashed himself with a knife and begged police to kill him. They subdued him with a Taser and took him to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he remains. more ›

While this video featuring Fort Worth, Texas city councilman Joel Burns discussing gay teen suicide has rocked the nation accordingly, we can barely watch the entire thing. (Your editor hasn't attended countless happy hours since turning 17 21 so that he could be reminded of the K-12 years, thank you.) It's pretty brutal. But necessary. It will make you cry. more ›

What with columnist Dan Savage and Stop8.org founder Matt Baume bringing teen suicide to light recently, there will be a rally today at City Hall, followed by a march to the Castro. Here are the details: more ›

We mentioned yesterday a two-alarm fire in the tenderloin where a woman jumped to her death. According to The Chronicle, the "woman who leaped from the eighth story of her burning apartment in the Tenderloin may have tried to murder a man by setting fire to the unit and then killed herself." The man in question, still in the hospital, is expected to survive. more ›

A non-profit New Jersey group brought their right-to-die message to the Bay Area this week via a giant sign at Howard and South Van Ness. It reads, "My Life, My Death, My Choice. FinalExitNetwork.org." more ›

Online folks unite to save life of possible suicide jumper. more ›

Mercury News, SF Weekly, and SF Examiner have already covered it. But just in case: San Francisco police are on the hunt for a missing teen girl who is suicidal. Her details: Caitlin McMahon, 5'03", 130 lbs, green eyes, brown hair, white, 15 y/o. more ›

Dark news here, folks. A sick Placerville man, according to Associated Press, "delivered his own obituary to a newspaper then hanged himself from a nearby bridge." The body of Allan Leo Peters II, 64, was found Wednesday dangling from "a yellow rope from an old bridge." Struggling with emphysema, Peters had delivered his obit to Mountain Democrat prior to hanging himself -- a brief excerpt reading,"Yes, I have hanged myself (At least I hope I did)" -- paying the $90 publishing cost. more ›

A sanity-estranged gentleman climbed up the Lefty O'Doul Bridge on Third Street this afternoon next to AT&T Park. While initially assumed the climber might try taking the final Nestga plunge into McCovey Cover, this turned out not to be the case. According to SF Weekly, whose offices at China Basin are across from the bridge, the man was "dancing," doing "silly things," and "spread his arms like Jesus" when he finally descended at the urging of a tactical police officer. Check out a full picture of the man in action here. more ›