Santa Rosa teen spent ‘weeks' planning 'suicide by cop'

The 15-year-old boy had been researching how to commit suicide by drawing police gunfire for several weeks. He bid goodbye to friends in text messages. Then he called 911 at 11:36 p.m. Monday and, giving his first name only, told dispatchers he saw a man with a gun at northwest Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park.

He waited at the north entrance of the park within the glow of a streetlight, with a pistol-lookalike pellet gun in hand.

The boy’s 46-second encounter with a Santa Rosa police officer left him wounded in the foot and hospitalized for medical and psychiatric care. Two days after the shooting, counselors were brought to his high school campus, Maria Carrillo in east Santa Rosa, along with a special county team whose members are experts in mental health crises among youth.

Santa Rosa Police Lt. Michael Lazzarini gave new details about the case Wednesday, describing how the visibly distraught teen initially seemed to be complying with the officer’s orders to set the gun aside and get on the ground. But as the officer stepped forward the teen apparently changed his mind.

“It’s tragic that it happened to that kid; it is also tragic that was going to happen to whatever officer responded,” Lazzarini said. “That has a huge emotional toll on the officers involved.”

The boy later told investigators he had been researching and planning to attempt suicide in this manner for “weeks” before he called 911 and described the clothes he was wearing to dispatchers, reporting a man with a gun at Coffey Park south of Hopper Avenue. Dispatchers asked an ambulance to head to the park at 11:42 p.m., before the officer arrived.

Santa Rosa Police Officer Brian Fix was the first to reach the park - telling dispatch he was “out with the subject” two seconds after 11:43 p.m. - and got out of the car on Coffey Lane.

A rookie with 14 months on the job, Fix stood behind the opened car door and ordered the distraught and crying teen to drop the gun, in a quick series of orders Lazzarini described as “asking, begging.”

The boy didn’t say anything, but set the gun aside and got onto his hands and knees. Fix walked around the door and “thought he could rush him and kick the gun away” but the boy jumped back up, said Lazzarini, who has watched the officer’s body camera recording of the incident and reviewed statements from the officer.

The teen took a few steps forward, pointing the airsoft BB gun designed to look like a pistol at Fix, Lazzarini said. The gun was missing an orange tip manufacturers are required to include to distinguish it from a real gun, he said.

Fix fired two shots in quick succession as he took steps backward, and one of the bullets hit the boy’s left foot, Lazzarini said. The boy fell, dropping the gun to the side and curling into a fetal position on the Coffey Lane sidewalk, the lieutenant said.

Officer Jessie Ludikhuize arrived at the park as Fix fired the shots, officials said. Ludikhuize parked the patrol car and ran to the fallen teen, kicking the pellet gun away, Lazzarini said.

The encounter took about 46 seconds from the time Fix arrived to when he reported he’d fired his weapon, according to dispatch logs.

“We are so glad the kid is alive and the officer is alive,” Lazzarini said. “That officer truly believed the person was going to kill him.”

Police did not identify the teen, who remained at a hospital Wednesday. Maria Carrillo High School Principal Vicki Zands informed parents in an email sent Tuesday evening that a student was involved in the incident and the school would bring extra counselors to campus.

Suicides and attempted suicides have an impact far beyond the people directly involved, and can potentially trigger suicidal thoughts in others and copycat acts, said Michael Kennedy, director of Sonoma County’s behavioral health division.

“It needs to be a community response,” Kennedy said. “We have to start talking about (suicide) and responding when we see teenagers who are in distress; we have to do something.”

Lazzarini declined to release the body camera videos from either officer because “it is evidence of a crime” still under investigation. It is a felony to brandish a gun at an officer.

The incident was also witnessed by a person who happened to be in the area, who has given statements to police.

Lazzarini said the boy has recounted what occurred to investigators and his and all other statements, including those of the witness, are in agreement about how the incident unfolded.

He said the officers were sequestered as soon as backup police arrived. They were interviewed about the incident before they viewed the body camera videos.

Lazzarini said the boy had a suicide note in his pocket.

“He orchestrated it, he set this into motion, we know he was planning suicide for an amount of time,” Lazzarini said. “He had taken steps to educate himself on that, he took the steps to get that weapon, he made a telephone call to police and he prepared a suicide note.”

He said the boy had no previous contacts with law enforcement relevant to the investigation into Monday night’s incident.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.