News Page

No easy answers in police suicide

By Eric Gorski/The Gazette 7/14/2001

For the second time in four months, the Colorado Springs Police Department is coping with the tough questions that come when one of their own officers commits suicide.

Few answers emerged Friday about why 36-year-old Brenda Whitlock, the city's first female SWAT team member and a former champion wrestler, shot and killed herself Thursday after a police chase through downtown.

Why she took her life remains unclear. But one thing for certain is that police officers take their own lives at a rate double that for the general population, according to one national study.

The stress that comes with being a cop and easy access to weapons are oft-cited reasons for the phenomenon.

Such national findings don't sway Carol Logan, the Colorado Springs Police Department's psychologist for the past 12 years. She said every department "has its unique culture."

Logan said the department screens potential officers for emotional stability and requires the equivalent of two years of college education. She said the department also reaches out to officers', families, holding special academies for them that cover safety issues and foster a sense of community.

Five Colorado Springs police officers have committed suicide in the past 25 years as the force has grown from fewer than 300 officers to 584 today, said Lt. Skip Arms, the department spokesman. Logan said four suicides occurred in the past 12 years.

The fact that two of those deaths have come in quick succession hasn't escaped the department's notice. The other, in April, involved a 33-year-old male officer.

"I'm sure we're going to take a look at this and see if there are any common threads to them, whether it's coincidental or if there's anything that ties them together," Arms said. "Again, it's kind of early to glean from this what we can pass on in terms of training."

Arms said Friday it will take a week to 10 days to complete a report on the events that led to Whitlock's death, and even then "things dealing with personnel issues and psychological stuff" will not be made public, he said.

However, Arms said Friday there was "no obvious factor" at work that would have been a catalyst.

On Thursday afternoon, Whitlock came to the Police Operations Center downtown for an interview with her commander, Arms said. Arms said the eight-year officer had been exhibiting "bizarre behavior" in the previous 24 hours, and it was decided she should be temporarily taken off duty and given a psychological evaluation.

Whitlock agreed to drive with her commander to the evaluation, but jumped from the moving car at Rio Grande Street and Nevada Avenue and ran to her nearby pickup truck.

Whitlock drove over grass, over a curb and headed north on Weber Street with officers in pursuit, Arms said.

She screeched to a halt in heavy traffic on Colorado Avenue near Nevada Avenue. As officers surrounded the car with weapons drawn, Whitlock shot herself once in the chest with her 9 mm service pistol, Arms said. She was pronounced dead at about 3:40 p.m. at Memorial Hospital.

Arms said it's standard for officers to pull their weapons at the end of a police chase. Eluding officers is a felony, he said. Arms said it was unclear whether the officers knew who they were chasing, or whether they knew she was armed.

Whitlock's husband, David, a sergeant with the police department, could not be reached for comment Friday. He will get paid time off to plan his wife's funeral, which is standard practice, Arms said. The family is planning a private service, with a possible "remembrance gathering" in the near future at the Police Operations Center.

Whitlock was a pioneer not only as a woman in the police department, but in her successful athletic career.

She wrestled on the Northern Illinois University men's team when women just didn't wrestle, said Gary Abbott, special projects director with Colorado Springs-based USA Wrestling.

Competing under her maiden name of Day, she won the women's wrestling national championship in 1994 and 1995 and placed fifth in the 1995 world championships for her weight class.

In May, she worked out with Mike Duroe, USA Wrestling's women's coach, and talked about competing in the Olympics if women's wrestling were to become an Olympic sport.

"There was no indication there was something wrong with her life," Duroe said. "She was fine, happy. Her job was going great. Obviously, something went really wrong (Thursday)."

The Gazette normally does not report on suicides but did so in Whitlock's case because it occurred in public at the end of a chase through crowded city streets. That wasn't the case with the other officer's suicide this year.

That incident involved an officer who shot himself in the basement of his home, apparently after he had been having domestic problems, Arms said.

Studies show that far more police officers die by their own hand than in the line of duty. The nation's largest police organization, the Fraternal Order of Police, studied suicides in small and medium-size departments in 1995 and found a suicide rate of 22 per 100,000 officers. The national rate that year was 12 suicides per 100,000 people.

-----------------------------------------

IN WRESTLING, YOU CAN'T PIN A GOOD GIRL DOWN

St. Louis Post-Dispatch 7/20/2001

Kayla Fischer of St. Charles started out as a practice partner for her
brother, but now she's the one bringing home the gold.

Women's wrestling in the Olympic Games may be just around the corner. One of
its first stars could be blossoming down the block.

Kayla Fischer, a 10-year-old from St. Charles, took up the sport as a
6-year-old because her older brother, Matt, needed a practice partner close
to his size. Then she started whipping up on the boys in area junior matches
at the St. Charles County Boys and Girls Club and later with the Howell
North/Howell Central club.

Just this year, she has started wrestling other girls her age, and sometimes
her 64-pound size. She's won three national championships and come within a
second of a fourth.

"It's incredible, even though I've watched her and coached her," said
Kayla's father, Jim, a former high school and collegiate wrestler who even
now marvels at the sight, and he's seen it, over and over and over.

When Jim watches Matt, who has finished as high as fourth in state junior
competition, he sees a tenacity that could take his son him a long way. And
when he watches daughter Kayla, wrestle her brother, he sees a natural.

But Matt needed a practice partner.

"That's how Kayla got started. She was the practice dummy. She picked up the
moves so naturally, I asked if she wanted to try and she said, 'yeah,'" Jim
Fischer recalled. "First match out, she won a trophy, and I figured I'd
better buy her some shoes."

Fischer's wife, Kathy, was incredulous. His mother was thunderstruck.
Matches became a study in gender consciousness. Through it all, Kayla, a
straight-A student at Becky David Elementary, just grinned and won - 60
matches, 40 by pins. She took a fourth-place medal home from a state
challenge meet.

"You could see fathers getting disgusted because their sons were losing to a
girl," Kathy Fischer said. "You'd see mothers watch Kayla win with ease -
and they'd suddenly jump up and start screaming, 'You go, girl!'"

Kathy continued: "Jim's mom is telling us to put her in dance, cheerleading,
gymnastics ... anything. Then she came out and saw how easily she was
winning, how natural it was - and she fell in line, too. She thinks it's
great now."

Kayla is one of those incredibly strong young women for whom the path has
been laid out. Climb to the top of a gym rope on your second try? Do 11
chin-ups while most of your fifth-grade class struggles to do one or two?
You go, girl!

"I like it that you can win medals all the time, and it was fun to beat the
boys." Kayla said. "I've also liked going to meets and maybe one day I can
go to the Olympics."

There is talk in this Title IX era that the Olympics may, in the near
future, open wrestling to women. Jim Fischer feels he needs to get his
daughter ready for that possibility.

She has attended the elite Nick Purler Wrestling Academy and has gotten help
from area high school coaches. And this year she began going to female
meets.

"That's where she needs to be as she gets to be a teen-ager," Fischer said.

Her first meet was the AAU LaFemme Championships at Kingsport, Tenn., which
drew 600 girls from 48 states. "We learned about a lot of these meets from
the fathers in the area wrestling program. They helped us get the
information, and they wished us well," Jim Fischer said. "I think some of
them were glad to see her go."

She won gold medals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman events. In the finals
of the folkstyle competition (high school rules), she was wrestling a
76-pound girl and was leading 7-3 when she got caught on her back and pinned
with one second to go.

Kayla shrugged that off, went up to Ann Arbor, Mich., the following week to
the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association Nationals. She won the 64-pound class,
taking out three opponents by a combined score of 40-1.

"Folks have started calling her 'Ellie Mae' after the Beverly Hillbillies'
character who had beauty and was strong enough to take you to the mat," Jim
Fischer said. "We've talked about it, though, and she knows that from now
on, every meet she goes to will have lots of Ellie Maes."

To help pay the bills for their children's athletic dreams, Jim sells
insurance and Kathy works as a dental assistant. And both work part-time in
real-estate to build up the war chest.

By the way, when she isn't getting straight A's or straight pins, Kayla
Fischer is working at gymnastics, where she's also shown some natural
ability.

Time for even bigger dreams - and the third shift?

-----------------------------------------------------------