In the 1980s, the concept of “suicide by cop” came to the attention of the public. The term has been attributed to a couple of different authoritative resources. Specifically, Vern Geberth, who commanded the NYPD’s Bronx Homicide Unit and the FBI’s famous Profiling Unit. They appear to have coined the term separately and almost simultaneously. However, there is a similar phenomenon that doesn’t get as much attention—suicide by armed citizen.
What is Suicide by Armed Citizen?
Suicide by cop occurs when an individual intentionally forces or tricks the police into shooting them to death. Some experts have divided these situations into two categories.
First, spontaneous incidents in which a suspect knows that they’re about to be arrested, can’t bear the thought of living the rest of their life in prison, and take their provocative action. Second, those who plan the incident beforehand, rather than dying by their own hand.
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It is easy for the law-abiding armed citizen to read about one of those cases, sigh the proverbial sigh of great relief, and think to himself, “I’m glad I’m not a cop and that can never happen to me.”
Like Hell it can’t.
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How Suicide by Armed Citizen Happens
Let’s look at a few cases where I served as an expert witness for the defense after such incidents. In these cases, it was an ordinary private citizen who shot and killed an attacker who forced them to do so under circumstances that fit this type of suicide.
Case One – Texas v. John Allen Curtis
My first such case was Texas v. John Allen Curtis in Dallas in the late 1980s. John was a successful criminal defense lawyer, around fifty years of age. An old friend from his law school days approached him.
The friend was down on his luck and failing as an attorney. He was about to desperately open his own law office, but he lacked the funds to do so. The friend was deep in debt, driving a beater car leased from Rent-a-Wreck for which he was behind on his payments.
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John gave him space in his office at no charge. Soon, the rest of the staff in the office was noticing strange behavior on the part of the newcomer. When they told John about it, he reflexively defended his old friend.
Others in the office soon decided John didn’t want to hear this. So, they didn’t inform him as things with the friend got worse. Among other things, the newcomer liked to wave around a 9mm pistol he carried illegally, since Texas did not yet have carry permits, let alone Constitutional Carry.
Suicide by Armed Citizen? Or Murder?
The evening of the shooting, Curtis was having an after-hours party at the law office. He was celebrating that his second marriage was soon to be blessed with a baby. It is believed that John’s obvious happiness was interpreted by the friend as rubbing his nose in his own sadness and failure. He told John he needed to talk with him in his private office.
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John had no sooner sat down behind his desk than the old friend loomed over him and began screaming about his own lack of success. He then suddenly whipped out his 9mm and pointed it at John. John cried out, “No!” and reflexively snatched his own 9mm pistol from his desk drawer and opened fire until the aggressor fell. John had run his pistol to slide-lock by then, and every shot had struck home. The man was dead.
Curtis was charged with Murder. He hired Charles Caperton, one of the smartest criminal defense lawyers I ever worked with before or since. Caperton made history by making this the first case in Texas in which a psychological autopsy was allowed into evidence.
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The psychological autopsy has a psychiatrist or psychologist access all available records of mental health treatment and diagnoses, and interview all people they can find who knew the deceased.
What emerged was a diagnosis of a paranoid schizophrenic in the grip of a psychotic break when he pulled the gun on the lawyer. He knew Curtis to be an armed citizen who was likely to defend his life and preserve himself so that he could be a father to the baby on the way.
Lessons Learned
There were many lessons from the trial. However, the bottom line for our purposes here was that the verdict was guilty. The sentence set by the jury was probation. Yes, that’s a shocking self-contradiction.
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The foreperson of the jury explained that the verdict was about discouraging the shooting of people at drinking parties. Likewise, the sentence was because the jurors all agreed they would have killed the old friend themselves. So, the criminal justice system adjusted the verdict accordingly, and Curtis went free.
It had been the ultimate shadow trial for case two, the estate of the deceased versus Curtis. The same legal defense team won a clean, total defense verdict, and Curtis’s ordeal was finally over. We had not emphasized the “suicide by armed citizen” angle, instead treating it as straight-up self-defense. Both juries “got it.”
It appears that the man who died that night had planned it ahead of time. He wanted to end his despair and perhaps give his survivors a viable lawsuit against his wealthy friend.
Spontaneous as Opposed to Planned
The person who suddenly decides to trick an armed citizen into shooting him will often have expressed suicidal ideation prior. They take the opportunity when suddenly faced with a determined citizen who reveals himself to be armed.
Case Three –Florida v. Zane Britt
This case involved a strange young couple. The female identified as a witch, and the male had recently been despondent and had spoken of ending it all. When they burgled a place of business owned by Britt, they triggered an alarm that rang at the owner’s home as well as the police station. Britt got there ahead of the cops.
He approached the felons with a .357 Magnum in hand. The male lunged at him, reaching for the revolver, and at close range, Britt desperately fired the fatal shots. The prosecutor saw only “an unarmed man gunned down for revenge” and charged Britt with the homicide.
Prior acts by the deceased, unknown to the shooter, can’t be used as evidence. So, the thrust of the defense case was straight-up self-defense against a man reaching for a gun. We won a complete acquittal without bringing up the “suicide by armed citizen” element.
Case Four – Tennessee v. Seth Casteel
In this case, the deceased was a local hero twice over, which may have led to the criminal charges. He was a sports hero when Casteel had known him long before as a classmate. Additionally, he was a hero again in the War on Terror, where his painful experiences had left him with severe PTSD that Casteel didn’t know about.
Casteel was at a family barbecue with the long-lost friend, who was drinking heavily. He didn’t know the friend was profoundly depressed and had been institutionalized for his mental issues. The much larger friend started a fight and savagely beat Casteel. Then, after being pulled off, he attacked him again and knocked him out.
In the interim, Casteel had armed himself with a .45. He awoke from the chaos to see his own gun on the ground and his long-lost friend now attacking Mrs. Casteel. When he picked up the gun and ordered the attacker to stop, the much stronger and larger man lunged for the gun. So, the defendant fired a single, fatal shot.
His excellent attorney, John Colley, and I both thought he had a very strong defense. However, Casteel had a large family and couldn’t risk being sent to prison. So, he accepted a plea deal with no time served.
This shooting was a clear example of “suicide by armed citizen” in my opinion.
Warning Signs of Suicide by Cop or Armed Citizen
So, yes, it can happen. We can’t control complete strangers. However, if the person in question is someone you know to have been depressed or going through a crisis, be wary. Watch for signs like “departure ritual” – a saying of goodbyes to old friends, a “putting of affairs in order,” and things of that nature.
And should you be picked as a juror in such a case, remember that the person they’re painting as the cruel killer may be the actual victim, forced or tricked by the suicidal person into committing the unnatural act of shooting a friend or relative.
