As Another NYPD Suicide This Summer Rocks City, Officials Tell Cops: ‘It Is Okay To Seek Help From Others’
Seven officers have died by suicide so far this year, including five since June. After one of those deaths last month, Commissioner James O'Neill referred to the deaths as a "mental health crisis" that the NYPD and "the law enforcement profession as a whole must take action."
A New York police officer was found dead at his Staten Island home on Saturday after shooting himself in what was the fifth police suicide in the city since June, officials said. Officials did not immediately release the officer鈥檚 name, rank or tenure with the department; however, the Sergeants Benevolent Association said on Twitter that it was a sergeant who had died. 鈥淥nce again terrible news,鈥 the message said. 鈥淭onight the NYPD lost a sergeant to suicide. We ask that everyone pray for his family, friends and Co-workers. The NYPD continues to go through a difficult time.鈥 (Zaveri, 7/27)
"The tragic news today that another member of the NYPD has been lost to suicide breaks our hearts, and is a deep sorrow felt by all of New York City," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement released late Saturday. "To every member of the NYPD, please know this: it is okay to feel vulnerable. It is okay if you are facing struggles," he said. "And it is okay to seek help from others. You may not know this, and it may be hard to imagine, but you are not out there all by yourself." (Morales and Almasy, 7/28)
On June 5, Deputy Chief Steven Silks, 62, was found dead in a police vehicle in Queens just days away from retirement. About 24 hours later, Detective Joseph Calabrese, 58, was found dead at Brooklyn's Plum Beach. Just a few days later, a 29-year-old officer died outside a precinct on Staten Island. Kevin Preiss, 53, a 24-year veteran of the force, was found dead at his Long Island home at the end of the month. "This is a mental health crisis," O鈥橬eill declared in June after the third death. (Madani, 7/28)
It鈥檚 been four years now, but Gloria Benitez remembers that day so vividly. It was March 10, 2015. She had come home from work and went to look for her son Jose. She discovered him dead in his room, a result of suicide.鈥淚 tried to help him but I think it was too late,鈥 Benitez. 鈥淏ut the way they treated him, it was not right.鈥 (7/26)