A New York City police sergeant was found dead Monday night after he apparently shot himself in the head.
The unidentified 44-year-old officer who worked in Queens was found dead inside his car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at around 7.20pm on a residential block in Flushing, according to the New York Post.
Authorities have not yet released the officer’s name, pending family notification.
Monday’s death marked just the latest suicide among the New York Police Department forces in recent years.
In 2019, four city cops took their own lives in just a matter of three weeks.
An unidentified 44-year-old officer who worked in Queens was found dead inside his car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at around 7.20pm on a residential block in Flushing
The officer apparently shot himself in the head, according to the New York Post
Deputy Chief Steven Silks, 63, marked the first of the four deaths that year, when he was found dead in a police vehicle in Queens on June 5 – one month before his mandatory retirement.
The next day, police found the body of missing detective Joseph Calabrese, 58, at a Brooklyn beach.
Police said they both also died of gunshot wounds to the head.
Then on June 14, police officer Michael Caddy, 29, shot himself in the head inside a car parked on a Staten Island street, and on June 2, Kevin Preiss, 53, a veteran cop assigned to the Bronx was found dead at his Nassau County home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
In total, 10 officers took their own lives in 2019.
Authorities have not yet released the name of the officer, pending notification to family
Monday’s death marked just the latest suicide among the New York Police Department forces in recent years
The following year, second-grade Det. Paul Federico, 53, and a 39-year-old off-duty police officer were also found dead from apparent suicides.
And in 2022, Scott Cohn, 38, jumped from the Throgs Neck Bridge after he experienced emotional difficulty from the job.
‘I know he wasn’t happy on patrol,’ a Brooklyn officer who knew him said.
‘He wasn’t happy with the treatment police are getting, the current environment. But that’s not really a reason to want to kill yourself. Anybody can leave the job.’
Then, last year, Officer Steven Hernandez was pronounced dead after he leaped from the Lefrak City Apartments in Flushing, Queens, shortly before 12.30pm.
Following Officer Gregory Purvis’ death inside an Upper Manhattan apartment in August, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry took to social media to highlight how the stressors of police work take a mental toll on the members of the force
Following Officer Gregory Purvis’ death inside an Upper Manhattan apartment in August, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry took to social media to highlight how the stressors of police work take a mental toll on the members of the force.
‘We lost another brother to the trauma of this work,’ he said.
‘To the men and women who wear the uniform, please know that there are always, always people willing to listen about the bad days, about the days that hit too close to home.’
