Category Archives: Security and Safety

From the Detroit News comes “Recent suicides highlight chronic stress officers face on the job,” which talks about Greg O’Dell’s recent suicide and other law enforcement/firefighters in the Detroit metro area that committed suicide. Here’s a quote:

O’Dell, 54, the chief of the Eastern Michigan University Police Department, never told his colleagues he suffered from depression. Now, a month after his death, the department is trying to move forward while struggling to understand why a man who seemed to have it all would take his own life.

“He never let on that he had any issue,” said Bob Heighes, Eastern’s interim police chief.

The article also says that the only people who knew about O’Dell’s problems with depression were his wife and a very close friend.

This is a quickly evolving story (it was on CNN as I was leaving the house today), but the short version is there is a shooting incident going on at Virginia Tech.  Here’s a link to an article from MSNBC article and a quote:

A police officer was shot at Virginia Tech on Thursday morning and officials warned everyone to seek shelter while an armed suspect was at large on the campus where 33 people died in 2007 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The campus newspaper and a local television station reported the officer was dead.

A possible second victim was reported at a campus parking lot, CBS television station WDBJ reported.

“We don’t know if the suspect fled or the extent of the injuries to the suspect or to the officer,” NBC News’ Pete Williams told msnbc cable TV earlier.

“This was a traffic stop on campus,” Williams said. “It was not someone walking around firing shots.”

I’m sure there will be more coming out about all this.