Sugar Grove Man Dies After Suicide Attempt

A 32-year-old man shot himself in the head Tuesday morning while in the driver's side of his car, parked just outside Mill Creek Market in Geneva.

Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez said Wednesday that five officers responded to a message from the Sugar Grove Police Department, which had received a call from the man's girlfriend saying he was suicidal and armed with a handgun.

The Sheriff's Department declined to release the name of the man in deference to family members, but said was taken to Delnor Hospital. A report in the Kane County Chronicle said the man died Tuesday night.

Sheriff's reports said the man had a Yorkville driver's license but was living in Sugar Grove with his girlfriend.

Sheriff's deputies went to the Mill Creek subdivision in search of the man's car. Perez said the man was known to occassionally go to the Mill Creek Market, 39W250 Herrington Blvd., for coffee.

An officer found the vehicle parked on the east side of the Mill Creek Market at about 11:38 a.m. and called for assistance. When other officers arrived, they evacuated the market, set up a perimeter and called emergency medical services.

One of the officers tried to engage the man in a conversation.

"While speaking to the subject, the reporting officer saw the victim reach into the seat," Perez said. "He grabbed a sweatjacket, wrapped it around his head and neck area, and shot himself in the head."

Perez' first concern was the safety of the Sugar Grove man. But he said he was also concerned for his officers, and praised them for evacuating the building.

He said it is always a difficult situation when a subject is despondent and armed, but he did not believe that the public was in danger.

"He wasn’t there with the intention of doing harm to anyone else," Perez said.

Perez said suicide situations like this are traumatic, not only for the families of the victims but for witnesses and law enforcers.

"I’ve dealt with these in the past. It’s very difficult because you go into most sitations knowing it's your task to control the situation and bring some type of order from the chaos," he said. "But in this situation, when someone attempts to take their own life, there’s not a lot you can do. It’s even worse when you’re tying to make the right thing happen and you witness firsthand the person take his own life. It can haunt you the rest of your life."

He said the officers involved went through a debriefing this morning (Wednesday, April 11). He said his officers had to deal with a similar event in Elburn two weeks ago. One of the officers on the scene Tuesday had been present several years ago, when a suicide victim shot himself while the officer tried to convince him to take his finger off the trigger.

For officers dealing with those situations, the result is similar to the post traumatic shock syndrome experience by soldiers at war.

"It goes with territory, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a toll," Perez said.