Taking the toll to four, the District of Columbia’s police department on Monday informed that two more police officers who responded to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol have died by suicide.
Metropolitan Police Officer Gunther Hashida, who had joined the district police in 2003, was found dead in his home Thursday. Another MPD officer Kyle DeFreytag who guarded the building on the day of the riot was found dead on July 10.
Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Kristen Metzger in a statement to CNN said, “We are grieving as a Department and our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Hashida’s family and friends.”
At the fag end of January, the force had confirmed the news of two officers taking their own lives after the attack. Acting Metropolitan Police Chief Robert J. Contee had remarked, “Tragically, two officers who were at the Capitol on January 6th, one each from the Capitol Police and MPD, took their own lives in the aftermath of that battle.”
As many as 100 police officers were injured and around four killed in the US Capitol insurrection in January this year.
Suicide rates in US defense forces at an all-time high
As per reports, the menace of suicide among the defence forces remains one of the major causes of fatalities among the US Armed Forces. The suicide rate among active-duty troops jumped to a six-year high in 2020, a report released by Pentagon said.
In 2019, the rate of suicide among active-duty troops was 25.9 per 100,000 troops. The rate was 24.9 per 100,000 in 2018, and 21.9 per 100,000 in 2017. The rate has shown a steady increase from 2014 when the rate was 18.5 per 100,000 service members.
However, the US Army General refused to acknowledge the growing threat in a recent Twitter banter for which he faced a huge backlash.