Suicidal Palo Alto teacher with butcher knife killed by officer, police say
REDWOOD CITY CA December 12 2018 — A teacher at Frank S. Greene Middle School was fatally shot by a police officer in his Redwood City home on Monday, shortly after his wife reported that he was attempting to commit suicide with a butcher knife.
Kyle Hart’s wife called police just before 9 a.m. on Monday requesting help for her husband, who had cut himself with the cleaver in an apparent attempt to kill himself, according to a Redwood City Police Department press release.
An officer initially tried to subdue the teacher with a Taser, but when that didn’t work, a second officer opened fire, police said.
Hart, 33, had taught English and social studies at Greene in Palo Alto for three years and was at JLS Middle School for four years before that, according to the school district.
Hart leaves behind two young children, including a newborn, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, whose office is investigating the officer-involved shooting.
The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office identified Hart on Monday evening. Greene Middle School parents were then informed about his death in an email from the Palo Alto Unified School District offering counseling support for students. The staff had been notified earlier Monday, according to Superintendent Don Austin.
A statement will be read to students on Tuesday morning, urging them to reach out to school counselors if they feel the need.
“We understand that it may be especially difficult for our students to emotionally process the death of a member of our school community,” Austin wrote in the email. “The grieving process is a normal result of loss. Young people of all ages may exhibit various grief reactions and these reactions can vary from day to day.”
No officers were injured in the tragic incident in the 400 block of Lincoln Avenue. According to the press release, Hart’s wife called police, “frantically requesting help and reporting that her husband was attempting to commit suicide by cutting his throat and wrists,” according to the department’s news release.
Several officers went to the home and were met in the front yard by a woman covered in blood, who directed them to the back yard.
That’s where they encountered the man, who was carrying a butcher knife, police said. Two of the officers, both described as having undergone crisis-intervention training, tried to convince the man to drop the knife.
The man refused to drop the knife and ran toward the officers, police said, adding that after one officer tried to stop him with a Taser, the other officer, a 20-year police veteran, “was left with no choice but to utilize a firearm to stop the male from advancing.”
It was the first officer-involved shooting in Redwood City since Dec. 30, when 31-year-old Marco Antonio Carlos, also believed to have been suicidal, was fatally shot after reportedly firing at police in a confrontation outside the Wells Fargo Bank branch near Broadway and Main Street. An official investigative report on the shooting suggested that Carlos was planning to die around that time.
Wagstaffe said his office typically takes eight to 10 weeks to complete an investigation into a fatal officer-involved shooting.
How to get help
Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line
