UPD responds to disturbed man on SHSU campus parking garage

University police helped deter an on-campus suicide attempt by a 19-year-old man who authorities said is not a student at Sam Houston State.

Last week, police responded to a report of a man sitting on the concrete railing atop the Sam Houston Parking Garage, screaming and threatening to jump. Police were able to convince him to come down without incident and he voluntarily went to Huntsville Memorial Hospital for further treatment.

Since the man, who police requested not be identified due to the sensitive nature of the situation, was not an SHSU student and was voluntarily treated at the hospital, he wasn’t evaluated by the university’s counseling center or health clinic.

Police said they did not suspect the suicidal male was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

"We get suicide attempts on campus and in the city as well," UPD Deputy James Fitch said. "It’s normal to take them to the hospital, and if they go voluntarily, we usually don’t stay with them. Had he refused, we would’ve kept up with him as a suicide watch patient."

Coincidentally, September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. One university counselor said in the past there have been students to go on top of the garage and threaten suicide.

Treatment for suicidal students at SHSU involves a mental evaluation at the Health Center, followed up by treatment at the Counseling Center.

The counselor said successful suicide attempts at SHSU are rare, but those few cases almost always involve students who never visited the Counseling Center, or sought out counseling at all. Likewise, he said the Counseling Center has never lost a suicidal patient it was treating.

Read Tuesday’s copy of The Houstonian for a more in-depth look at the issue of suicide at SHSU and other college campuses.