Have you ever witnessed a suicide?

[MAJOR METAL]

In May 2014, as I was beginning my commute to work one day, a man standing about ten to fifteen feet from me jumped out in front of the train. He didn't hit the rails, but was thrown back onto the train platform nearly right at me and died. I commute everyday from that train station, and this man's suicide is always in the back of my head when I look at the spot on the train platform he died.

Have you ever witnessed a suicide?

 

[58kites]

No, but I witnessed a murder.
When I was 15, I took classical guitar lessons at Hochstein Music School in Rochester New York.
One evening on my way out the back door from my lesson, I saw two guys try to rob the bursar woman who takes the money bag out at closing time...her husband jumped out of his car and yelled a racial slur at them so one of them shot the husband in the eye, he fell to the ground and was dead in 10 or 15 minutes.
My father (who was waiting in his car to pick me up) jumped out of his car to try to help the man.
It was a strange feeling to witness this, it seemed so matter of fact, not heated, I was not in fear because the guys ran and I felt sure they would not be back.
After my Dad sent me into the school with the bursar woman to call the police, I came back out and my Dad was kneeling next to the man and doing the last rites prayers and talking to him, that was pretty surreal.
My Dad ended up being a witness at the trial.
I was surprised by my Dad taking control of the situation so calmly...later is occurred to me that his years in WWII combat duty were probably the reason.

 

[mellowinman]

Haven't witnessed one, but have lost a lot of people that way, starting when I was just a teenager.

It is always tragic and painful.

 

[JRA]

no, i have not witnessed a suicide.

i used to be in a business where suicides were common, however. i dealt with several who committed suicide. mostly i dealt with those who were left grieving, post suicide.

 

[jaco944]

I was a paramedic for 20 years, there are a few things that still amaze me. How much devastation a human can endure before death, what people can and will do to other people and themselves and the difference between life and death....I'm not a super religious person but at the moment of death something happens. Aside from all of the biology and physiology that occurs something happens....some people say it's the soul leaving some say it's just the physiology of a dying organism. Either way it's palpable and real. My routine when dealing with a dying person was to assure them they weren't alone and just talk to them calmly. For the OP im sorry that happened to you and I hope you can find some peace with it eventually.

 

[bolophonic]

The drummer of my last band committed suicide by jumping off the roof of a downtown hotel a few years ago. I didn't witness this, but I was told that he landed on the sidewalk in front of a person who knew him. I was in the area a few days later and spoke briefly with an employee of the hotel who showed me where the whole thing occurred and now I find myself simultaneously drawn to the spot, but in a way that makes me want to look away and not be there. I'm sorry about your experience, OP. And everybody else.

 

[shadowtippy]

I've never witnessed one but I lost my first wife to suicide. I also called 911 on an attempted overdose.
My mother in law threatened to swallow a bottle of pills and her daughter, my wife, got her a glass of water to wash them down. She would have taken her to get her stomach pumped if the pills had been swallowed. (I think)
I have lost a couple of friends to suicide, also. I guess I don't know a lot of mentally stable people.

 

[Gorn]

I saw my friend overdose from cocaine. He died later on. It wasn't a direct suicide attempt but I think he was hoping it would happen. Kinda passive suicide maybe. Is that a thing? I don't know.

 

[turbo2256b]

Never witnessed one but back in Nam just got off a night shift about half asleep on my top bunk. in the next room heard a blolt being pulled back and released on a m16 thought someone was cleaning their weapon started back into sleep. Hear a noise about as loud as hands clapping and a piece of the guys scull flys through the gap between the wall and the ceiling hitting me in the knee.
Another at the same base camp who smoked pot and began smoking what the guys thought was coke buy in reality was almost pure heroin tried to quit on his own. When off duty i tried to keep him busy but the pot smokers kept bugging him about smoking a joint. He didnt want to because he thought it would lead him to smoking the heroin again. This guy had lots going for him back home a business doing well a wife and 2 cute daughters. He shot himself in the gut one night i was on duty. They could do nothing for him as the doc told me his liver was in a hundred pieces. He lived 24 hrs before passing.
Its why i formed a hate for addictive drugs

 

[Badwater]

In the USA there we have Latin TV network channels. Some news broadcasts and entertainments programs show actual suicide, dead bodies, people being run over by trucks and trains, body parts, and other horrific events in video. Seems like they take advantage of their 1st amendment rights. Kudos to them for keeping it real.

 

[GIBrat51]

Yes, I have. In early 1973, off the middle of the Thatcher Ferry Bridge in Panama. Kinda sad...

 

[ElectroVibe]

No, but I remember a TV news clip showing a man about to do it at a public meeting that was being filmed. They only showed him saying a few things and then taking a gun out of a bag, but the clip stopped at that point after which he shot himself. I was kind of surprised they even showed that much.

 

[charlie monroe]

I think that was Budd Dwyer

 

[BioDriver]

Two. First, my old roommate's girlfriend after he broke up with her. She came over the next day, said she just needed to pick up a few things from our house, and asked us to help her carry it out to her car so she "could get out of their lives easier." Obviously this was just so it would be harder for us to stop her from killing herself, since she slit her throat with a linoleum knife while our hands were full. Second was some random guy who jumped off a cliff when my dad and I were hiking in New Mexico a few years back. Thankfully it was just us and the rangers who had to bear witness to that.

I've also seen a few accidental deaths and some honest to god murders. The last one was in Vegas shortly after the guy jumped in New Mexico, so suffice it to say I haven't had an itching desire to go back to the desert since then.

 

[GwenOnBass]

If I'm going to say it, today (September 11) is the day to say so. My office (okay one of my offices, but this was my working office in that time period) was across the street from the World Trade Center.

I did my job.

Never returned to that site.

 

[Dave W]

No, but I remember a TV news clip showing a man about to do it at a public meeting that was being filmed. They only showed him saying a few things and then taking a gun out of a bag, but the clip stopped at that point after which he shot himself. I was kind of surprised they even showed that much.

Budd Dwyer? The entire thing was broadcast on live television

Invalid Link Removed

 

[bolophonic]

If I'm going to say it, today (September 11) is the day to say so. My office (okay one of my offices, but this was my working office in that time period) was across the street from the World Trade Center.

I did my job.

Never returned to that site.

That's interesting. I was at work in an office overlooking the Pentagon 17 years ago. I basically quit my job and my entire life after that and started over completely.

 

[GwenOnBass]

That's interesting. I was at work in an office overlooking the Pentagon 17 years ago. I basically quit my job and my entire life after that and started over completely.

Also interesting. I quit my job that day but didn't tell anyone

Left that line of work entirely. Rebooted my life. Presently in touch with only one person from that timeline - a drummer, by chance.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I've seen a lot of bad traffic accidents that ended in fatalities, but the one I remember most is a guy working on an air conditioner at the local hotel.
He got out too far & touched a power line. It was pretty horrific what it did to his body before he fell to the sidewalk below.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Yeah, TAs (traffic accidents). A time that is not recorded as now holds the space where local newspapers employed the staff to send at least at least a photographer to a fatal. And run the picture, too, played according to what else goes on in the daily news cycle.

My comment is best reserved.

However

if ye want to see some first tier news photography, look up Invalid Link Removed (Arthur Felling). In the 1940s in Manhattan, WeeGee plied his trade to the city's newspapers. He's widly admired for transcending the reality of the street into art.