Edward Nortrup suicide: Aberdeen NJ police officer with Roselle Park Police shoots self dead after losing control of car and crashing. Police suicide and mental health.
Did he mean to crash and die? An off-duty New Jersey police officer fatally shot himself in the head after crashing his SUV into two parked vehicles. The fatality occurred as first responders were preparing to free him from the wreck, officials said.
Edward Nortrup a 13 year veteran Roselle Park cop lost control of his SUV about noon Sunday on Broad Street in Matawan and struck the two vehicles before partially rolling over, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
‘As first responders left the vehicle to get equipment to help with the extraction, the driver located a firearm and fatally shot himself,’ Swendeman told via the nypost.
Nortrup ‘removed a gun in his possession and fired one shot tragically taking his own life,’ Roselle Park Police Chief Daniel McCaffery said in a statement, adding, ‘We are grieving as a department for the loss of our officer.’
‘He was very well-received by all who encountered him,’ McCaffery added.
It remained unclear if Nortrup used his service gun to take his own life.
Nortrup, 39, of Aberdeen, NJ served in the Detective Bureau and was a member of the Union County Emergency Response Team, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.
Nortrup according to the post was a 2007 graduate of the John H. Stamler Police Academy. The patrolman was described as being a co-worker, friend, and a brother.
‘Always willing to help others, Patrolman Nortrup was a well-respected member of the law-enforcement community, and will be sorely missed,’ the post read.
Incidence of police suicides:
There were 17 police suicides last year and 37 since 2016 in the state of New Jersey, NJ.com reports.
The state Attorney General’s Office recently launched the New Jersey Resiliency Program for Law Enforcement, which will require every officer by the end of 2022 to attend a two-day training session on mental health.
‘This is training that is necessary with the epidemic of law enforcement suicides nationwide,’ McCaffery said. ‘We welcome any training that allows out officers to cope with the stresses of our jobs as best that we can.’
The head of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association said a call about a cop’s suicide is the worst kind they can get.
‘I always feel like this is preventable. It’s not like a line-of-duty of death. There’s always danger out there but these are the deaths that are hard because somehow we missed this guy and didn’t get him help,’ Patrick Colligan told New Jersey 101.5.
Unclear is whether Nortrup was under particular strain or hardship or duress at his place of work or in his personal life? Also not clear is whether the police officer had sought or was offered guidance prior to taking his own life – which is to wonder would the officer still be alive had a culture of permissiveness to discuss work pressures being enabled.
