A Chicago cop killed herself in a parking lot outside a police station on Wednesday, department officials said – the department’s third police officer to commit suicide since July.
The 54-year-old officer, who was not immediately identified, was found unresponsive from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in her personal car in a parking lot at the Calumet District police station early Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed the officer’s death on Twitter.
“Crushing news for the department this morning as we grapple with the suicide of a veteran Chicago Police officer who took her life inside her personal vehicle,” Guglielmi wrote. “Please pray for this officer’s family and fellow officers.”
The officer’s death follows two other officers who killed themselves over the summer. Most recently, Sgt. Steven Bechina was found unresponsive in his squad car on Labor Day, using his own service weapon in the shooting, Guglielmi said.
An autopsy later confirmed that Bechina shot himself and his death was ruled a suicide, according to the Tribune.
Weeks earlier, in July, Officer Brandon Krueger, 36, fatally shot himself with his service weapon inside his squad car while outside the Calumet District police station, just as the female officer who took her own life Wednesday.
Fellow officers at the station now have access to grief counselors and mental health professionals, according to the Tribune, which noted that a proposed federal consent decree calls for the police department to provide additional resources to officers, including raising the number of counselors from three to 10 within two years.
The suicide rate among Chicago cops is 60 percent higher than the national average, a Justice Department report found.