Las Vegas police released video footage showing an officer-involved shooting of a suspected DUI driver, saying the incident may have been a case of “suicide by cop.”
Police responded to a three-vehicle crash at around 7:15 a.m. and determined a driver of one of the vehicles was under the influence. He refused to take a sobriety test.
Then, as the footage shows, he ran off and grabbed a gun that he hid in a bush.
Police said he fired a shot at officers. One of the officers then ran behind a vehicle and shot him several times, KTNV reported.
Two officers, 52-year-old Kenneth Pilette and 43-year-old Chad Betts, fired a total of six shots at Busse, who later died.
None of the officers were injured in the incident. Other details about the case were not revealed by officials.
Suicide by Cop
Assistant Sheriff Tim Kelly told KTNV that officials believe it was a case of suicide by cop. According to Suicide.org, it occurs “when people want to die but do not want to kill themselves. So they put themselves in a position where a police officer is forced to shoot them.”“Suicide by cop incidents are extremely dangerous to police officers because they never know if the individual will try to kill them too,” the site says. “Some suicidal individuals will point an empty gun at the police because they know that the police will shoot back in self-defense.”
The Journal noted that officers can be traumatized by the event
“In addition, suicide by cop has the potential to traumatize the officers who are forced to use deadly force that results in the death of the suicidal individual. Hence, this unique form of suicide has the potential to be a public health threat on a multitude of levels whenever and wherever it takes place. As mental health providers, we need to be aware of this unique form of suicide in our suicide screening assessment arsenal if we are to be effective in preventing it from happening,” it says.
