Suicides are not something that The Bench would normally cover, but this one was so unusual that it is newsworthy for several reasons.Summary: A man ended his own life by allowing highly toxic hydrochloric fumes to kill him while he sat in his car behind the building he lived in. This created a hazardous materials situation. He left at least one suicide note, apologizing in advance for the mess and the inconvenience that his death would cause.
The man locked himself in his car, put a "Warning" sign on the driver's window, and let the acid do its deadly work. His car was parked in his apartment building's rear parking lot, in full view of any neighbor looking out a back window.
The call first went out over police dispatch for districts 20/24 at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 1. Unfortunately, there is nothing unusual about suicide calls. Listen to your scanner and you're likely to hear several on any given day. This suicide, however, closed off a street and and alley and required a hazardous materials (hazmat) response team.
The 5700 block of N. Winthrop was closed off to auto traffic between Ardmore and Hollywood, as was the alley between Winthrop and the CTA tracks.No buildings were evacuated. No residents who live along the alley were prevented from going in or out via the alley. The only reporter on scene was me, and I was told that I must stay out of the alley because it was too hazardous. This begs the question: If it was so hazardous, why was there no evacuation? Why was it more hazardous to me than to the neighbors?
The Chicago Police and Chicago Fire were, predictably, unwilling to share non-sensitive information with the media. This unwillingness was on vivid display Sunday morning.
I repeatedly asked police and fire officials on the scene how the man died. It should be said that although The Bench knows the man's name, out of respect for privacy it will be withheld. But simply telling me how the man died, by which means he killed himself, would not have revealed his identity.
One fire fighter on scene finally told me that it was "sulfuric acid," but that was wrong. Close enough, however, that it was probably an honest mistake and not a lie. But a short while later, a police officer, when asked, told me the deceased man was "in his early 70's" and had died "in his bathtub."In fact, the victim was in his mid to late 30's, died in his car of hydrocholoric acid fumes, and had lived in the building for less than one year. Neighbors said he seemed like a decent fellow, but didn't know much about him. The hydrochloric acid was confirmed for me by a guy from Set Environmental of Wheeling, Illinois, who said that hydrochloric is also known as "pool acid" and can be purchased at any swimming pool supply store.
The fate of the man's dog, a golden retriever, is unknown at this time.
The bits about the age and the bathtub were obviously lies, since a number of police and fire officials spent hours first pulling the body out of the car, then cleaning the car and the space it sat in, and examining the surrounding area.Police and fire personnel do not help their already-suffering public relations by playing dumb with reporters and the public. I don't blame the individuals. They are afraid to share even non-sensitive information for fear of retribution from their departments. It is the department heads and Mayor Daley who are to blame for public servants being so tight lipped.
ACID and MARIJUANA
The police handled this suicide case in an way that is different to but equally as ridiculous as the "bomb scare" in late April that turned out to be a big deal about a marijuana pipe (a bong). In the bong case, residents were left standing in the cold night air hours after the watch commander knew that the "bomb" was only a bong. When residents asked what was going on, cops on scene who knew told them to shut up and mind their business. If that was not their business, what the hell is?In the suicide case, I was the only media person on scene. Officials went out of their way, literally, to keep me away from the death scene, and refused to answer questions. But in this case, residents were allowed to go in and out of the very building at which a hazmat was declared, as well as all other buildings on the block. No building was evacuated.
From overreaction with residents in the April bong scare to underreaction in Sunday's suicide hazmat, only one factor was the same: No info for the media. Fire officials would not even say who their on-site commanding officer was.At about noon, I asked a group of firefighters what kind of chemicals they had been working with. I already knew, but wanted to get their reaction to the question.
"I don't know," one said.
"You guys have been working with those chemicals for nearly three hours and you don't know what they are?" I asked.
"We don't talk to media because of what they write about us," one said.
Really? And just what do the media write about police and fire?
Here a hint for the city officials - share the information that the public has a right to know and the media won't end up writing about how reluctant you are to share information. Better yet, it will reduce the amount of guessing or inaccurate information that the media gets (unintentionally) while doing their best to fill in the gaps that city officials deliberately leave unfilled. This is no way to run a democracy.
