This is terribly sad and unfortunately all too common. The deputy’s hand was forced: This suicidal subject, Clifford Leroy Tucker, drew a shotgun on him.

Marquette County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Keith Romback was called out to the home in Ishpeming Township on July 9 after Tucker reportedly made suicidal statements. He had allegedly called the local hospital and said that he was going to kill himself.

Romback clearly had rapport with Tucker and knew the man. But no amount of rapport, it seems, would have thwarted Tucker’s intention, which seemed to be not to take his own life but to have it taken for him.

How do we train better for such encounters? What do we do for our officers and deputies who have to live through them and deal with the aftermath?