Suicide by cop

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Suicide-by-cop is a suicide method in which someone deliberately acts in a threatening way towards a law enforcement officer, with the goal of provoking a lethal response, such as being shot to death. Similar phrases include suicide-by-police, and officer- (or police-) assisted suicide. A veteran Canadian police officer researching the topic for his Master’s and Ph.D. theses used the phrase “Victim-Precipitated Homicide”. (Parent 2004)

The phenomenon has been described in news accounts from 1981, and scientific journals since 1985, although this particular phrase did not become common until the early 1990s. The phrase seems to have originated in the United States, but also appears in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, dated May 10 2003. The report states that a jury in a police-shooting inquest ruled it a suicide because on the scene, the subject reportedly stated “better get your guns out lads, I’m coming out” and a suicide note was later found. Some say that the 1976 death of Mal Evans, road manager, assistant, and a friend of the Beatles, was an example of this phenomenon. Some historians believe that Giuseppe Zangara, the man who killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak in a possible attempt to assassinate then-president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, might have been attempting suicide by police.

Indicators include suspects that point an unloaded or non-functioning gun (such as a toy gun or starter’s pistol) at officers, or otherwise act in a threatening manner. Suicide notes are obvious indicators, if present. Many law enforcement training programs have added sections to specifically address handling these situations if officers suspect that the subject is attempting to goad them into lethal force.

• Suicide crisis
• Suicide intervention
• Suicide prevention

• Aramoana massacre
• Charles Whitman, the University of Texas tower shooter
• Kip Kinkel, a school shooter, attempted suicide-by-cop but was subdued by pepper spray instead

• Lindsay, M. & Lester D. 2004, Suicide by Cop: Committing Suicide by Provoking Police to Shoot You. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89503-290-2
• Parent, Richard 2004. “Aspects of Police Use of Deadly Force In North America – The Phenomenon of Victim-Precipitated Homicide,” Ph.D. thesis, Simon Fraser University.

• Results of one study of the phenomenon
• Law enforcement suicide prevention resources