TAMPA, Fla. - It was an unsettling situation when Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez was allegedly seen with a gun as he argued with his wife at a Tampa hotel in July. Not long after, he pulled off on I-75 and shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt.
Ramirez survived, but it drew attention to the disturbingly high rate of suicide among first responders and the stigma that has prevented them from seeking help with their mental health. It's been that way for generations.
"I could hear the snap of her gun coming out of her gun belt and I remember her pulling the trigger," Clara Reynolds, the CEO for the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, said.
It's Reynolds' frightening recollection as the daughter who watched her mother take her own life. In 1986, Reynolds' mother Sgt. Lenora Booth, who was Tampa's first female police officer died by suicide.
The daughter who once watched it unfold is now the CEO of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.
"But, I was also that 15-year-old girl who saw her mother die by suicide right in front of her," said Reynolds. "But, now it's helping shed light on what's been dark for so many decades."
She said law enforcement officers and other emergency personnel are the first to serve and the last to ask for help.
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