When it comes to talking about suicide, Washington Department of Health’s Sigrid Reinert feels a different approach to the issue is needed rather than the currently accepted practice.
Most people don’t wish to discuss circumstances surrounding a person taking their life, privately for sure but publicly too, even when that completed act takes place for everyone to see and find out about. Reinert, a suicide prevention specialist in DOH’s Prevention and Community Health Division, feels hushing up such events may be harmful to finding an approach to deal with the question of why people elect to end their lives.
“Don’t keep it in the closet,” Reinert said in a May 13 interview. “Talk about it.”
Statistics from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reveal that in 2017, 47,173 Americans took their lives, with 3.54 times more men doing so than women. The statistics also indicate 1.4 million Americans made a suicide attempt.
According to Cheney police reports, the department handled 67 suicidal calls in 2018, up from 42 the previous year and 29 in 2016. So far in 2019, officers have responded to 26 calls through June 25, a number Sgt. Nate Conley said does not include any calls on the Eastern Washington University campus.
“That number probably isn’t 100 percent accurate because we may have determined additional subject(s) to be suicidal during the course of investigating the other call types,” Conley said in an email. “Without reading each report, I can’t tell you if a suicide was carried out, attempted or just statements/actions were made to initiate a call to police.”
Late on the warm evening of Sept. 3, 2018, a call to police did result in an individual dying by suicide — although it wasn’t the individual who carried out the final act.
A final decision
The voice on the Cheney 911 dispatch tapes is calm, measured and even as the man describes to dispatcher Ben James where he’s at and what he’s seeing: in a car at a corner near Mitchell’s Harvest Foods watching a man in the parking lot waving a knife and threatening people as they approach the grocery store’s main door.
James’ voice is equally as calm as he relays the description to officers: “Khaki jacket, bulging pockets. Waving a knife around.”
James asks the caller if he can see any additional weapons. He gets a further description: “He has a big, red beard.”
By this time, a couple minutes after the initial call time of 11:42 p.m., Cheney Officer Nicole Burbridge and Officer Zeb Campbell, with Reserve Officer Nick Horn riding along as part of his training, entered Mitchell’s property from 2nd Street. According to the report, the two patrol vehicles drove south behind the store and then around to the front parking lot where Campbell stopped northeast of the main entrance and Burbridge about 10-15 feet in front of the main door.
Immediately upon exiting their vehicles the officers were confronted by the man, later identified as 40-year-old Steven L. Anderson, who first motioned towards Campbell and Horn, but quickly turned and ran at Burbridge. The officer, who had joined Cheney’s force not more than a year earlier, backed up and was pinned against her vehicle’s open driver’s door.
At this point on the 911 tapes there is a jumble of activity and a sound of struggling and heavy panting from the individual on the phone. Within a few seconds, in the background on the tape an urgent voice yelling quickly “Drop the knife! Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” followed by a volley of pops.
According to the report, the three officers fired 18 rounds. One glanced off a propane tank near the south wall. Two hit the store, one failing to penetrate the stone façade at ground level while the other passed through the thinner stucco construction near the ceiling.
Anderson was struck seven times. Several were superficial.
“But then there were some that would’ve rendered him incapacitated,” Cheney Capt. Rick Beghtol said.
Anderson fell to the ground, dropping what was later determined to be a kitchen knife. The three officers immediately began administering first aid and were quickly assisted by responding EWU officers and then Cheney Fire Department personnel.
Anderson was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Officers found a cellphone, eventually identified as Anderson’s, on the pavement underneath a can of Henry Weinhard’s beer perched on a narrow wall ledge.
When James made a return call to the number identified in the 911 system as the original caller, Anderson’s phone rang.
A seven-month investigation by the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office concluded in April that the three Cheney officers “were justified in their use of lethal force against Steven L. Anderson while attempting to contact Anderson.” In the intervening time, some in the court of public opinion questioned why the officers didn’t take measures to stop Anderson without harming him, such as Tasers or shooting the knife out of his hand.
“The people who have that skill set are in the movies,” Beghtol said.
Begthol said officers train for as many situations as can be thought of to occur while on the job, but in the end, factors such as adrenalin, low-light situations, speed, distance and timing of events can necessitate the need for simply reacting as best they can to a threat. At Mitchell’s, they had a fraction of a second to go through a Rollodex of options, compounded by the belief — created by Anderson’s call — that another individual might have been involved in the incident. In the end, it was Anderson alone.
“He orchestrated it, choreographed it and played it,” Beghtol said.
Helping investigators confirm this was what they found under Burbridge’s vehicle after the shooting — a notebook with Andersons’ writing.
Reaching out
On several of the 34 pages he wrote on in the 60-page notebook, Anderson described feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness that led to three attempts to end his life. Each time someone or something intervened to thwart the attempts — which involved pills and alcohol.
After a fourth try on Aug. 29, Anderson was torn between fixing his life and trying something different. He made a decision to do the latter, writing “So my next option is the cops,” adding he just needed to create the right situation.
On Sept. 3, Anderson wrote “I’m going to do it,” describing the scenario he would create.
“I really hope nobody else gets hurt,” he added as he thanked law enforcement for doing their job to protect the public and wrote other good-byes.
Anderson’s was not the first public suicide in Cheney or the most recent. In January 2018 an EWU student led officers on a brief car chase before completing his suicide in the vehicle parked on Salnave Road. In April of this year, onlookers intervened to prevent a 19-year-old woman’s suicide attempt by ramming her car repeatedly into a parked locomotive at the end of Calispell Street.
Department of Health’s Reinert said most people who elect suicide don’t do so publicly, and it’s even rarer that they seek out law enforcement as a means. They also don’t switch things up.
“If they’re not successful with one method, they usually don’t go on to another method,” she said.
What is seen, Reinert said, are the feelings of hopelessness and despair Anderson wrote of in his notebook. People contemplating ending their lives might vocalize these sometimes, and sometimes they may keep them hidden from even their closest friends.
Such seemed to be the case with Anderson, who friends described on social media posts as someone who would reach out to help those in distress, but who might not have known the depths to which the 40-year-old father was hurting. Reinert said this isn’t unusual, but is often the norm when it comes to suicide.
“I wonder if people were really attuned to the situation,” she said, adding that she had a client whom she saw regularly die of suicide, so even experts can miss potential signs.
“It’s very hard to see,” Reinert added.
The number one strategy to prevent suicide is reaching out to others as a friend; something Reinert said is described in the Center for Disease Control prevention papers as creating “connectedness.”
“Think about people who aren’t connected and lonely and have no one to talk to,” she said. “It really helps a lot to talk.”
Reinert said it’s important to make a human connection with people, speaking as a good neighbor or friend and with compassion. It’s also important to reach out to people to talk especially if they exhibit signs of being unduly upset or stressed.
“Anyone can at least ask, ‘How are you doing?’” she added.
Reinert said there are many prevention and crisis help lines people can be directed to in order to get help with their problems and challenges. If people aren’t forthcoming about what troubles them, or try to gloss things over, their issues can’t be forced out of them, she added. But a conversation can be started, which can be a first step.
Reinert said it’s a myth that you shouldn’t seek help when feeling a bit depressed.
“It is OK to seek help,” she added. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
Warning Signs of Suicide
Talking about wanting to die
Looking for a way to kill oneself
Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
Talking about being a burden to others
Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
Acting anxious, agitated or recklessly
Sleeping too little or too much
Withdrawing or feeling isolated
Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
Displaying extreme mood swings
The more of these signs a person shows the greater the risk. Warning signs are associated with suicide, but may not be what causes a suicide
What To Do
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide:
Do not leave the person alone
Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt
Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-TALK (8255)
Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional
RESOURCE HOT LINES
Trevor Project (LGBT) (866) 488-7386
Spokane First Call for Help (509) 838-4428
In Davenport (509) 725-3001
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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