RCMP Officer who witnessed Beheading takes own life

[Ryoken]

After a long struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, a Mountie who witnessed the beheading of a Greyhound bus passenger has taken his own life.

 

A family member has confirmed that recently-retired RCMP corporal Ken Barker died by suicide last weekend.

 

Tim McLean was killed near Portage la Prairie in 2008, when he was stabbed, mutilated and ultimately beheaded in an unprovoked attack by fellow Greyhound passenger Vince Li.

 

The two had been strangers when they sat beside each other on the bus ride from Winnipeg to Edmonton

 

Li, who later said he heard voices compelling him to murder McLean, was found not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

 

 

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/mountie-who-witnessed-bus-beheading-dies-by-suicide-1.1918550#ixzz37lTvEmMV

[Ian W]

[snip]

Not sure why you'd make a joke out of this . . .

R.I.P.

[Shiranui]

You'd think a mountie would be made of stronger stuff; what he witnessed was no worse than a Friday afternoon in Riyadh, or a May afternoon in Woolwich.... There must be more to this than the article would have you believe. 

 

Anyway, very sad for the family.

[Ryoken]

You'd think a mountie would be made of stronger stuff; what he witnessed was no worse than a Friday afternoon in Riyadh, or a May afternoon in Woolwich.... There must be more to this than the article would have you believe. 

 

Anyway, very sad for the family.

Most Mounties will never draw their firearm on duty.

 

The simple fact it, shooting aren't common here, and that's what they expect to see. Seeing someone get their head chopped off by a Katana.. well there's no getting prepared for that.

 

 

[snip]

[Denis W. Veteran]

[Thread cleaned]

 

Some maturity and sensitivity please. :rolleyes:

 

Anyways, on topic. That is tragic and also goes to show how difficult it is to deal with mental illnesses. PTSD being common amongst police officers, it's unfortunate we're currently not there yet in terms of finding a cure-all solution to treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc. What we have now is, at least, a temporary patch fix - and hopefully a strong enough support network for affected victims so that they don't succumb to suicide.

[FloatingFatMan]

Poor guy.. :(  Wasn't he given counselling?

[Gerowen]

You'd think a mountie would be made of stronger stuff; what he witnessed was no worse than a Friday afternoon in Riyadh, or a May afternoon in Woolwich.... There must be more to this than the article would have you believe. 

 

Anyway, very sad for the family.

 

Beheading is pretty brutal and shocking.  I remember seeing the video where that reporter was beheaded early in the American invasion in the middle east, pretty disgusting stuff.  Not enough to make me suicidal, because I'm sound enough to know that it had nothing to do with me, but it's not something I think I'll ever forget, even now it bothers me to think about it.  I can't really imagine actually having to see it in person.  I'll never understand why people resort to that method of killing either.  I mean if I really wanted to kill somebody I would just shoot them or poison them or smack them in the head with a big rock or push them out in front of a moving vehicle or something, but beheading is just, I mean it's just down right barbaric and disgusting, and it unnecessarily prolongs the suffering of the victim.

 

It seems that the RCMP is dealing with some of the same issues as any other military or police force, and that is not really knowing how to handle PTSD properly.

 

My condolences go out to all of those affected.