Hell of a thing happening, hell of a thing has happened. Four members of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department commit mass. [00:00:16] Put up the picture, okay? This story is still developing. To be specific, one retired employee, three current members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department took their [00:00:33] own lives within a 24 hours period starting on Monday. Details surrounding the depths remain unclear. Investigators have not noted if they believe the incidents to be connected. [00:00:51] The sheriff's department is now offering resources to the impacted families, as well as confidential counseling for department personnel. Let me give you the details as we know it right now. The first death was reported around 10:30 AM on Monday in Valencia. [00:01:12] That's according to a statement from the department. 2 hours later, a little after 12:50 PM, detectives were called to a second death in Lancaster. Then, at 5:40 PM, they were called again, [00:01:30] this time to a home in Stevenson Ranch. And then at 7:30 AM, Tuesday morning, homicide detectives were sent to a hospital in Pomona, where a current employee was also declared deceased, [00:01:50] from taking their own life as well. Put up the sheriff, Robert Luna. Here's the sheriff issued a statement on the desk, quote, our LASD family has experienced [00:02:08] a significant amount of loss tragedies this year. We are stunned to learn of these deaths, and it has sent shockwaves of emotions throughout the department as we try and cope with the loss of not just one, but four beloved active and [00:02:27] retired members of our department family. He continued, during trying times like these, it's important for personnel, regardless of rank or position, to check on the well being of other colleagues or friends. I have the deepest concern for our employees well being, and [00:02:45] we are urgently exploring avenues to reduce work stress factors, to support our employees work and personal lives. So, rates of first responders at risk so many studies have actually shown that some of the highest suicide rates in all professions are among first responders, that's according to the FBI. [00:03:04] 32 law enforcement officers die of suicide and 9 attempted in the past year. Of the 32, the FBI reported, 26% were actually experiencing relationship problems, 23% were suffering from depression, 19% were suffering from secondary trauma collapse, chronic illness, [00:03:22] or post traumatic stress disorder. The LA Sheriff's Department, so the context here does matter. So while I can cite general statistics about first responders and stresses of the job, because remember, first responders also include who? [00:03:37] People that come to your house to save your life, like in an ambulance, all right? It's a stressful job. Dear friend of mine does that job every single night of her life, it is a tough job. So, you cannot dismiss possible guilt. [00:03:53] You cannot dismiss potential something else here. We don't have all of the facts. Hell, we don't know how they came to the conclusion that everybody simply took their own life. We don't even have that on the record right now. [00:04:11] But I will tell you this, for four individuals to take their own lives within a 24 hours period, and they all work for the same company known as the sheriff's office, that doesn't happen every day. [00:04:29] There's some there, there. All right, Mr. Mayor, if this happened to the police department, under your authority as mayor, you would assume this is more than just a coincidence, at least initially as you looked into it. [00:04:48] >> Speaker 2: I think Sheriff Luna, you're right, I think Sheriff Luna owes us more information. First of all, we know the problems of the Los Angeles Sheriff Department, their gang activity. He should have told us there were no internal investigation into these four officers. These four officers never were connected, they didn't work together on anything. [00:05:07] What's the likelihood in all those statistics you name, I bet you they can't cite another case ever where four officers from the same sheriff department killed themselves within a 24 hours window. We need to know, were they under investigation? Were they likely being targeted for something else, and how? [00:05:22] And who said this was of all four of these officers, we didn't get any of that information. I'm left thinking there are more questions than answers in this situation, and I, like you, am clearly weary of the fact that four people at the same department killed themselves on the same day within a 24 hours window. [00:05:40] We need more answers. >> Speaker 1: We gotta get more answers. The public deserves it, their families obviously deserve it. If you're saying, well, they're not connected, they don't seem to be connected. How did you come to that conclusion? Explain that to people, you are a public servant, you get paid by the hardworking citizens of your local community. [00:05:59] They deserve to know what their tax dollars are paying for.