Suicide By Cop
Learners from the “Will You Drink From This Cup?” program and participants of the Reentry Metro program
Another astounding story we heard on our inner city pilgrimage for the “Will You Drink From This Cup?” program was from a woman we will call Martha. She lives at Reentry Metro, a half way house for women going into or coming out of prison.
On the day of our pilgrimage, Martha was fearful. She had been convicted in federal court and was awaiting her sentencing 3 days later, for up to 2 1/2 years in federal prison. She had been convicted of an armed bank robbery. It was hard to imagine this beautiful and sensitive woman sitting in front of us as an armed bank robber. In fact, it was clear that another participant in the room from Reentry Metro saw her as an older and compassionate mentor. Yet, here she was.
As the story unfolded, she explained that her problems all started with undiagnosed mental illness. She suffered from depression and was finally so tired of living with her condition that she decided to commit cop suicide. That is, she robbed a bank with the intent of the police shooting her as a way to kill herself. She used a bee bee gun to do the robbery and then climbed into her car, waiting for the police to shoot her.
Fortunately for her, the police did not shoot her. She was finally diagnosed properly, and she is doing much better now because of having the proper medications. Her biggest fear was regressing in her mental illness as a result of being in prison.
We left there promising to pray for her and believing that a great injustice would be done to sentence a woman like this to prison. To our delight, we heard later that the judge showed leniency and sentenced her to a different half way house, instead of the 2 1/2 year prison sentence that was possible. What a blessing.
