Longview police investigate ‘apparent suicide’ at City Hall, Library parking lot
Longview TX March 24 2021 Longview police investigated an “apparent suicide” around lunchtime Tuesday in the parking lot between Longview Public Library and Longview City Hall.
Police Lt. James Bettis said an individual died by “apparent suicide.” No one else was injured in the incident, he said. Bettis declined to state the manner of death; however, News-Journal employees saw a gun on the ground next to the body in the parking lot.
As police investigated the afternoon death, entrances to City Hall from Cotton Street and South Street were temporarily blocked, and the drive-thru used by residents to pay their water bill was temporarily blocked. Yellow police tape blocked part of the parking lot between City Hall and the library, and police placed black screens around the individual’s body, though the screens did not reach all the way to the ground and the body could still be seen underneath.
The city did not lock doors to City Hall or Longview Public Library during the investigation, and residents continued to use those facilities.
Some residents leaving the library Tuesday afternoon showed signs of distress at seeing the body in the parking lot, and the News-Journal was later informed that some city employees took lunch breaks unaware of the situation in the parking lot and felt they had a “traumatic” experience upon witnessing the scene.
City spokesman Shawn Hara said the city did not send a wide communication message to city employees but noted that “some employees were counseled and made aware of the Employee Assistance Program, which has counseling services available for them.” The Employee Assistance Program, available to all city staff, allows employees to receive counseling related to a variety of topics, including grief, bereavement, depression and anxiety.
Hara said employees were provided the information on an individualized basis because a limited number of employees had a direct impact with the incident. The area of the parking lot in which the death occurred faces the Water Utilities Department at City Hall; the death occurred in the area of the parking lot closer to City Hall than to the library.
The individual who died has no apparent connection to the City of Longview, Bettis said, noting the person is not a city employee. It was not immediately clear Tuesday why the individual was in the parking lot between Longview City Hall and Longview Public Library.
Police also did not immediately identify the individual, and Bettis said the Longview Police Department has a policy against identifying individuals who die by suicide to the media.
The News-Journal also has a policy against covering deaths by suicide. However, because this death happened in a public, governmental space in the city and because it impacted residents who accessed Longview City Hall and Longview Public Library on Tuesday, the News-Journal has chosen to report on it.
This is at least the second such instance of an individual dying by suicide on city property.
In January 2015, 17-year-old Kristiana Coignard came to Longview Police Department and asked to speak to an officer. Coignard then brandished a knife and struggled with police before being shot by a police officer. The teenager had struggled with mental illness, her family had said, and an autopsy showed she was carrying a “suicide-type note” among her belongings when she confronted officers.
