By Steve Lannen
slannen@herald-leader.com
Drivers watched in horror as a man shot himself late Wednesday afternoon on an embankment beside Richmond Road.
The unidentified man was at the University of Kentucky hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. He was later pronounced dead at the University of Kentucky hospital, Lexington Police Lt. Edward Hart said.
A little before 5:30 p.m., as shoppers and commuters crawled by on busy Richmond Road, a man sat on an embankment near the intersection with Mount Tabor Road. He had a gun and had told some customers at the nearby Starbucks he planned on hurting himself, Hart said.
Two people approached the man and tried to talk with him and police were on their way, Hart said, but the man put the handgun in his mouth and shot himself.
A suicide note was found in his pocket, Hart said.
- If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call 1-800-784-2433 or (800) SUICIDE.
With those starbucks prices I’d do the same
What an unbelievably inappropriate, insensitive comment.
unbelievably?…inappropriate?…insensitive?… oh for heaven sakes get off your thin-skinned high-horse… suicide is one of the most cowardly acts one can commit, so making innocent light of a cowardly act is anything but your heavy-handed adjectives….
He’s still alive?
Lesson 1: Make sure you get your whole head in front of the barrel.
Suicide is NOT COWARDLY! It is the purest act of existential liberation in the universe, at one with transcendent reality, and clarity. Orgasm with divine creation.
I am a daughter of a suicide. My father committed suicide last February. At the time I was angry and I still get that way but I have come to terms because I understand what he was going through.
To make fun of or to make light of someone committing suicide is not humorous. Do you even try to consider what that person has gone through in their lives to make them think there is absolutely no hope left??? I would never wish that on anyone but I do wish people would take the time to TRY to understand someone who is suicidal. They see NO HOPE regardless of what they do.
My heart goes out to this man and his family. I’ve been there and know the pain that suicide and even just the attempts cause.
I can only hope the jerks who thinks it’s funny never have to suffer the events that lead to someone feeling that the only option is to end everything.
IVANNA DIE AND BAM.. ARE YOU REALLY THAT INSENSITIVE OR JUST HATEFUL. DO YOU NOT THINK THAT MANS FAMILY WILL READ THIS. DO YOU SEE THIS AS A JOKE? I MEAN COME ON!!!!! I JUST PRAY PEACE FOR HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! MY THING THAT I KEEP THINKING IS WHAT WAS SO BAD IN THAT MAN’S LIFE THAT HE THOUGHT THIS WAS HIS LAST OPTION.
IT IS SAD THAT ONES LIFE CAN GET TO SUCH A DOWNSPIN, BUT THIS GUY WAS JUST LOOKING FOR ATTENTION,OR WHY ELSE WOULD SOMEONE SHOOT THEMSELF DURING RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC. IF HER WERE SERIOUS, HE WOULD HAVE PLANNED HIS SUICIDE A BIT MORE DIFFERENT
How terribly sad that this man could not get the help he needed; if your friends family, neighbors, etc seem to need it, offer to lend an ear. Sometimes a little kindness is all it takes to save someone. I know from experience.
PEOPLE really needs to take a sensitivity class… because maybe a family member of his is reading this and your comments are about stupid… if the economy keeps going as is then the numbers of suicide will increase… go back in history and look at the people who jumped from windows when they lost all there money and couldn’t face their family.
MAYBE people should be helping each other instead of bring them down!
As a mental health professional in this area, I find these, yes, insensitive, judgmental, inappropriate, and ignorant comments. If people don’t understand suicide and the many factors that can lead to it: homelessness, (good chance he probably is/was), mental illness, among others. Keep your ignorance to yourself, please.
SUICIDES ARE HAPPENING MORE FREQUENT THESE DAYS! MAYBE IT WAS THAT THE PARTY FELT IT WAS HIS ONLY OUT. IF ATTEMPTED ONLY, MAYBE HE WILL GET HELP HE NEEDS.
This person was a family memeber of a close friend. I don’t disagree that it can be seen as a cowardly act, but you may want to consider who else is touched by it. I feel so much pain for the family. And by the way, he is dead, so you lesson was actually well followed, are you happy?
If you have ever had to deal with loosing a family member to suicide you would never be so insenitive, it is the saddest thing to deal with ever, there are a lot of questions unanswered, even when there is a note left behind! They are sick and in need of medical help! So sad, I feel for those who are his relatives, whether he lives or not……mowens
It has NOTHING to do with being a coward. It’s a mental health problem. They are sick people that need help.
First I feel very sorry for those left behind. Second I commend the individuals who stopped and tried to intervene. They are truly hero’s to have taken a chance when they did to try to help. I hope they have someone to help them through the trauma they suffered when they saw this poor man commit suicide.
I am so sorry that this person felt like there was no alternative. I pray for his soul and for his family. I also pray for the poor innocent people who had to witness this act, what a horrifying experience. Especially for anyone that had children with them. I also think that some of you people who are leaving such thoughtless comments need help! This was a humane life!
I was this man’s friend and neighbor. I talked to him everyday. He was a good guy. You talk big when you dont know anything about it.
I don’t believe this man was just “looking for attention”, as someone put it. Maybe it was a cry for help. The people that have left the insensitive remarks obviously have never experienced a loss from suicide. He obviously felt there was no hope left for him, I doubt he even knew where he was. My heart and prayers go out to his family and friends. My prayers also go out to the people that feel it’s OK to use this response area as a means for making fun of people. It would be real easy to “bash” and shame you for your remarks, but I think it would make me feel better to pray for you.
“looking for attention”? Wow, that’s probably the most idiotic statement ive ever read on the internet, and we all know the internet is far and away the biggest collection in the universe of remarks and statements that manifest wholesale lack of mental function. The only word i can use to describe the stupidity of your statement is “bizarre”
I feel bad for him that he didn’t die from it: now with the gunshot wound to his head his life will be even more messed up than before he pulled the trigger. It’s that fear that kept me from trying that years ago. If I do decide to kill myself I’ll jump off a tall building instead (but yes I’ll try not to land on anybody).
How selfish and insensitive is it to shoot yourself on a busy road at rush hour in front of a coffee shop? I feel bad he thought that was the only way out but he asked for all these comments when he decided to make it public.
My deepest sympathies to this family and sorrow for this poor soul. Suicide is a horrible thing and the family is as much a victum as the poor soul who thought this was the last option.
Please accept my deepest condolences and know that I am praying for the victum and the family.
And for all you people offering condolences, make sure you offer them to the people that WERE FORCED to witness this horrible act.
I was a friend of the family of the gentleman who shot himself last night. For those of you who are so insensitive to make light of the incident and say he was being selfish for leaving this world the way he did, I say, “it can happen to your friends or family just as easily as it did to this family”. How naive for some people to think they are so perfect they will never have someone they know kill themselves. I pray this never happens to anyone else I know. Thank you to everyone who attempted to intervene and help him. I know his family truly thanks you from the bottom of their hearts. For those who only condemn him, I pray you will never have to go through the problems this family is facing now and faces in the future. Please remember to keep this family in your thought and prayers in the future. And yes, I agree, please keep the people who had to witness this act. Pray they never have to face it again and never have the urge to perform the act themselves.
I was a friend of this man. I spoke with him an hour before he shot himself as we often did. First, to those of you calling him a coward, you have no idea what he was going through at the time and was about to face. And quite frankly, it is none of your business. I’m not here to give insight onto why he did what he did or why he did it where he did. I agree that I can understand why someone would view suicide as a cowardly act and I would go as far to say that many people who do say so have never been in a place mentally where suicide was an option. Be human and leave your personal judgements out of this and stop and say a prayer for a family who has lost a loved one. Thank you to all of the people here who showed sympathy and know that he was a man of kindness, empathy and selflessness. Again, any conclusions you may try to make from a few lines of a news story are guaranteed to be completely erroneous as you, in no way, knew the man himself. He is survived by a wife and daughter and they are the people who, in this hour of need, need the grace of compassion and humanity. My deepest sympathies to anyone reading this who may have suffered a similar loss.
I’ve been a friend of this person for the last 30 years. He is dead and the world is worse because of it.
David was an entrepreneur, business owner and expert on many subjects.
I just saw his wife and young daughter. I hope they never see the anonymous cruel comments some have posted here while hiding behind their keyboards. They don’t know why he did this, all they know is he is gone and there is a there is a big void left in their life.
He did not do this for attention, he never gave a damn what other people thought about him when he was alive, I doubt he cared what they thought about him dead.
David fought life everyday, life finally won.
Goodbye David,
Steve
My 6 yr old daughter was directly next to this man and witnessed this right outside her car window as the car sat at the stoplight. She said, “Daddy, that man has a gun and he has it in his mouth”. You can imagine the horror of seeing this. We are still trying to console her regarding this. Luckily she didn’t see him actual pull the trigger or the after math.
How cruel and insensitive people can be. You have NO idea what this man was going through and until you know his history, you should keep your mean and negative comments to yourself. My prayers go out to his family and friends and everyone that has had to go through losing a loved one to suicide.
I found this link by Googling it today after reading it last week in the H.Leader. I have been haunted by the story of this man. Who was he? Why did he choose his demise in that way? It has bothered me terribly. I feel helpless that I can do nothing and did not know this person. I also do not understand why I can’t let the thought go. It happened very close to my home and I drive by his spot daily. Perhaps I feel I could have helped in some way if I had just been there at that moment. I have prayed for this unknown man all week. I feel better seeing some of the posts from people who knew him and cared for him. I just hope he is now at peace as he obviously could not find it in this life.
God rest his soul.
AF
Unless you have lived in the shoes of someone who thinks, or has acted on thoughts of suicidal thoughts, there is no way that you can fathom what a person goes through. My family has a mental health history, my mother tried to commit suicide, and had 15 minutes more past, she would have succeeded. She was in a coma, came out of it and had done nerve damage. I am Bipolar, so is my brother, and my other brother has major depression. In March, I attempted suicide, fortunately, I failed. I have a beautiful home, a husband who adores me, two sons, a daughter-in-law, and everything to live for. But I have a chemical imbalance in my brain that causes me to take swings, and taking the right medication is like playing Russian roulette. This is my diabetes, but I don’t get one certain medication and a finger prick monitor that tells me how much seritonin is off it’s levels in my brain. Instead I get a “black cloud” and “deep hole” that shows up for me to survive with until it passes and that can be sometimes weeks. I am 44 and have health problems also, physical. My husband is very supportive of my depression and swings. My oldest son is a R.N. and understands some of it and thankfully shows no signs of depression. One of the biggest signs of a person depressed is they become reclusive, they don’t want to go anywhere. Get them out of the house, the sun is especially important for people with depression. Winter’s make people with mental health problems worse. Don’t tell them to snap out of it, they can’t. Be supportive. Make sure they keep their appointments with their counselors and physciatrists. Make sure they take their meds. Get involved in their care and make sure they are doing all they possibly can to help themselves manage their depression. The last thing is communicate, my husband and I have an agreement now that I tell him when my “black hole” or “dark clouds” show up and we work extra hard to get me out of the house although I sometimes go kicking and screaming, because I want to stay in my pajamas and don’t do anything. So next time please don’t judge people for things you have no knowledge of why they do the things they do. Educate yourselves. This is happening to 7-years old up to 90. It is not a cowardly thing to do. Usually it’s a desperate way to escape the black hole we can’t climb out of.
To: No Faith in Humanity. I lost mine when I read your message. How dare, this insensitive, and selfish person infringe upon your being. I and the rest of humanity offer our sincerest apologies. I lived in Ky for 45 years of my life. I’ve been gone for 3 years. Dude, you are the type of person that makes one glad they left! OMG! I hope no one takes the oxygen you need. Although, I doubt they would want it. To those who witnessed this, I don’t know what to offer. It is your choice in how to deal with this. Unfortunately, at this point, nothing may seem to help. Time can be an ally. Certainly, you must think and consider what you need to deal with this. You must consider that although this all seems to be the most personal event to you, my hunch would be that this individual was past that point of reason. Not that he did not know what he was doing, but it was not personal. Many can tell you that, but I think that if I witnessed it, for a time, I would feel it was personal. But I beleive it was truly not. Unfortunately, the depths of despair and the true Hoplessness this person felt overrode all rational thought. I work in a postion in Emergency Services that deals with commitments and hospitalizations, and I question whether anyone, (unless they have been in that position) can inreality know the hoplessness that these folks feel at that moment. If you saw this, please consult with someone you trust, be it pastor, QMHP, (therapist), or best friend. But please speak with someone. You are not “tainted,” but it will suprise you what can surface in the future if this is not addressed. Those who were “trite,” be careful, Karma can get you.
How dare most of you all make light of this or condemn him. I am friends with this man’s daughter and he was friends with my Dad for over 30 years. You have NO CLUE about anything that he had to deal with in his life.. He was a good man. We still don’t understand why he did this and especially why he did this where he did. I obviously do not condone it and my heart goes out to the poor people who had to witness this horrific act. But please in the future don’t be so quick to judge another person’s actions when you don’t know the circumstances. And also think of the wife who lost her husband and the daughter who lost her Daddy. Suicide is not some sort of joke.
oh and Glenna. You might want to get your facts straight before making those kinds of statements. He was not homeless.. far from it.. I know for a fact.
I knew this man since 1966. I remember coming back from a sneak trip to Louisville and the two of us hearing Karen Carpenter sing “Ticket to Ride” for the first time, and both being moved to tears for the sheer beauty of her voice. Some knew him deeply, some knew him superficially; I knew David’s heart. Someone said he didn’t give a damn what anyone thought. The David I knew DID give a damn and that’s one thing which hurt him. He also went through some things I’m not going to mention but suffice it to say, if those cowards who have been so cruel and inhuman in their remarks had experienced what he did thirty-five years ago, I doubt they would have lasted as long as he did.
David was my friend. I loved him as my brother. He was a different sort of guy and when you met David, you met someone with a heart, not someone who would, or even could, so callously make the remarks which have been made about him. His words to those in Starbuck’s were a cry for help but instead, the police came, which, of course, they would and should, and the door closed because, in his mind, it meant a trip to the so-called “psych ward”, and being hand-cuffed, too. My brother/friend could not have handled that, not after what he had already been through.
As for the little girl who saw him put the gun in his mouth, I feel terribly about that. David was not himself. He would never have done that if he was himself. I’m praying for that little one. Thank God that’s all she saw.
I feel sorry for those who have no heart. David had a heart. He knew Jesus, too. Sadly, the world was just too much for him. My only consolation is I know he’s not suffering any more and he’s in the arms of Jesus, his Savior.
God bless all of you who had the heart to make kind remarks. If the family and loved ones see your remarks, I’m sure they’ll bring comfort. To those who made the heartless remarks, do you really care how your words cut the hearts of his family? What if this man had been a relative of your own and YOU read the heartless and inhuman words YOU wrote about them? Puts the shoe on the other foot but that doesn’t matter to you, does it, because it wasn’t you…
Folks, things these days are hard, and they are getting much harder. Nobody knows what a life changing event will do to someone. Trust me, unless you have been there, you shalt not pass judgement on someone.
I feel terrible for the man and his family, as well as the people that have had to witness this. Seeing someone die in this way is something that stays with you, no matter how hard you try to get it out of your mind.
With that said, I notice a trend in some of the Herald Leader readers. They use the blog posting to make critical judgments on people that they do not know. Not everyone is a few sentences in the paper. The people behind the names are just that, people, and they have feelings. Remember their families read what you write. You’re adults, use your filter wisely. Don’t hide behind a computer and anonymously slander people unless you know them. That’s all.
Im am aggrieved more than I can say for the callousness of some of the comments I have read here. I have just spent another week of crying for the loss of my own brother to suicide eight years ago. You see, yesterday would have been his 31st birthday. Each year since for this entire week, I remember, and cry for the young man he was and could have been. Time moves on and it gets easier except for this week in Oct. when I dedicate my thoughts and actions to a most loved person. I will remember you who have lost this man as well and pray for your own way of dealing with this terrible act.
The only thing that makes a person really ever want to committ suicide is this system of blame, shame, and failure and the way that it treats people. Perhaps this was a protest by this man about what kind of a bad life he was having and he wanted to call it to the attention of the rest of you that he had a right to take his own life and he did. The police being called if they had of gotten there in time would have only ended up with his death by shooting more then likely or with him turned into a violent dangerous mentally ill criminal and locked up some how and pilled out of his mind so that no one had to deal with what he was protesting. Perhaps he already knew this? Many people now have to take note of this, even if it wasn’t the best thing in the world and I feel sorry for his family and friends that have to wonder what they did to make him do this thing, maybe some things or maybe not nothing? Only they can answer that.
I do know that some times some of the people that push this suicide and other treatment can be really cruel and even when so called medicating willing to viciously attack anyone as long as they can push these pills, they can also be some of the first to cause a person to want to jump! They will do it and laugh at a person about it at times and then say take a pill, get some therapy, take some treatment, but I am really sorry I don’t have enough time or resources to actually assist you in any way that you might ask for, now go away you lazy pig! NO, I am not joking this is how some of the ones pushing this treatment really do it! And they don’t really care who they do it to as evident on this board some people are just plain cruel and ignorant and not only on the net they can be that way in real life too! I try to stay away from them, lol lol lol