The record number of suicides was recorded in 2020 among employees of the US Armed Forces. This is reported by the Military.com edition with reference to the Pentagon data.
In the first quarter of 2020, this figure was lower than in the same period of 2019 – 133 instead of 137. However, in the second quarter it grew by 11.3 percent, and in the third – by 22 percent. In the last three months of 2020, 156 American troops took their own lives, which is 25 percent more than in 2019. At the same time, the main increase fell on employees of the National Guard and reservists.
Thus, the total number of suicides among the American military personnel could be 571 – 13.5 percent more than in 2019. The final statistics will be published in the annual report in October. In the Pentagon, the increase in the number of suicides among the military is associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In late January, it became known that two police officers who participated in the dispersal of the crowd that stormed the Capitol, had committed suicide. The dead were officers Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood, who worked for the Washington Police and the Capitol Police. Another police officer, Brian Siknik, died from his injuries during the riots.
