Following a classmate’s death, five students called on the City Council to prioritize funding student mental health programs. “We were converting our grief into something meaningful,” one said.
Suicide
Posted inCrime & Safety
Police investigate apparent suicide near UC Berkeley
Update, Feb. 25, 4:20 p.m. The coroner’s office has identified the woman who died as 25-year-old Hanaa Djouider, and classified the case as an apparent suicide. The cause of death was listed as multiple blunt injuries. She is listed in the UC Berkeley campus directory. Update, 6:35 p.m. Police have identified the woman who died […]
Posted inCommunity, Crime & Safety
Woman dies in suicide near Berkeley’s Old City Hall
Update, Jan. 8, 6:20 p.m. The woman was identified as Shelley Bergum, 63, of Berkeley. Update, 5:40 p.m. The woman has succumbed to her injuries, authorities report. She was in her 60s, and police are in contact with her family. Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats said authorities will not be releasing the woman’s name at this time. Coats […]
Posted inCrime & Safety
Man commits suicide in Little Farm parking lot
A man in his late 60s killed himself in the Tilden Little Farm parking lot on Friday afternoon after leaving a note about his intentions in his El Cerrito home. East Bay Regional Park District spokeswoman Carolyn Jones said the man, who was born in 1948, appears to have shot himself as he sat in […]
Posted inCrime & Safety
BART promotes suicide prevention line as incidents spike
BART hosted a press conference in its downtown Berkeley station Tuesday to announce a new campaign to combat a recent spike in suicides on its train tracks. By mid-March, there had already been six crashes and five fatalities, the agency reported. Last year, there were 14 crashes involving BART, including several incidents at the North Berkeley and downtown Berkeley stations. One incident in […]
Posted inCommunity, Events
Out of Darkness walk aims to end silence around suicide
By Katherine Griffin Nine years ago this month, Dale Boland’s son Gulliver took his own life. He was just 14. In the months that followed, Boland, a music teacher in Berkeley, remembers her family’s grieving being compounded by how hard it was to talk openly about the way Gulliver died. “People don’t talk about suicide,” […]
Posted inSchools
Noose at Berkeley High raised concerns over past suicide
Berkeley High administrators considered whether a noose found hanging in a tree earlier this month might have been in some way related to the suicide in February of a 21-year-old man on the BHS campus, according to Berkeley Unified Assistant Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi. On Oct. 1 at around 2 p.m., a thin rope tied in the form of a […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Fire, Schools
Potentially hazardous chemical suicide in Berkeley called for collaborative response, cautious approach
The death by chemical suicide earlier this week of a former UC Berkeley professor left many in the community reeling with disbelief. Berkeleyside’s revelation that the person found dead in a room at the Berkeley City Club was Sydney Kustu, who killed herself on her 71st birthday using a potentially deadly chemical called sodium azide, […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Schools
Chemical suicide victim was UC Berkeley professor
The woman who committed suicide using a toxic chemical on Tuesday at the Berkeley City Club, prompting a hazardous materials evacuation, was a former professor at UC Berkeley. She killed herself on her 71st birthday. Sydney Kustu was a professor emerita in plant and microbial biology at Cal’s College of Natural Resources and a member of […]
Posted inCrime & Safety
Elderly woman commits suicide with toxic chemical at Berkeley City Club, leaves note to warn authorities
UPDATE, March 19: Authorities identified the woman who was found dead at the Berkeley City Club on Tuesday as 71-year-old Sydney Kustu. Read more about Kustu in Berkeleyside’s follow-up story, published Wednesday. UPDATE, 9:10 p.m.: The person who committed suicide today at the Berkeley City Club was an 80-year-old woman who killed herself in her room using sodium […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Schools
Berkeley High suicide victim’s family mourns
The family of the young man who died of an apparent suicide at Berkeley High School on Monday told Berkeleyside this week they were not sure how he had ended up there, and said he had been struggling in recent years with drug addiction. Authorities identified the 21-year-old as Michael B. Hamilton, whose last known […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Schools
Update: Man who committed suicide at BHS identified
UPDATE, Feb. 18, 3:55 p.m.: Berkeley Police say the young man who committed suicide on the Berkeley High campus was 21-year-old Michael B. Hamilton. There is nothing to suggest that the death wasn’t a suicide, said Berkeley Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats. Hamilton does not appear to be have connection to BHS, she added. Hamilton’s family, who […]