Facebook Live Suicides: Deaths On Social Media Are A Growing Crisis

Frederick Jay Bowdy, a 33-year-old aspiring actor, shot himself in the head while sitting in his car early Monday on a Los Angeles street. Just before he committed suicide, he went on Facebook Live threatening to kill himself.

Mark Zuckerberg added Facebook Live to the social media giant in April to give users an alternative way to communicate with one another in real-time. “Live is like having a TV camera in your pocket. Anyone with a phone now has the power to broadcast to anyone in the world,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. During a media interview in April, he described Facebook Live as “raw and visceral.”

But in the months since, there have been numerous reports of suicide and suicide attempt cases shown live on Facebook. In some cases, the live suicide attempt allowed interventions from family members and law enforcement officials, while in others, viewers simply watched in horror as a person ended his or her life. Below are some of the most high-profile suicide and suicide attempt cases that have made headlines since the launch of Facebook Live.

1.Nakia Venant, 14

Venant, a Miami teenager, committed suicide Sunday night in the bathroom of her Miami Gardens foster home. The eighth-grader, who streamed the act on Facebook Live, apparently hung herself using a scarf as a homemade noose, according to the Florida Department of Children & Families. Venant's Facebook Live video was two-hours long, the Miami Herald reported.

"We are absolutely horrified and devastated by the news of this young girl's death," Mike Carroll, Florida DFC spokesman, told the Miami Herald. "We will do everything we can to support this family and all those who cared for her as they begin to heal from this tragedy."

Authorities tried to save Venant after they were alerted about the video by a friend, but the friend gave them the wrong address to her home, according to CBS News. Once police arrived at Venant’s house around 3 a.m., they found her hanging in the bathroom while her foster parents slept in their bedroom.

2. Frederick Jay Bowdy, 33

Bowdy was parked on the street near the North Hollywood Arts District when he shot himself in the head. Family members contacted Los Angeles Police Department around 5:30 a.m. saying he was distraught and threatening to take his life, law enforcement sources said. Officers tracked Bowdy down, who was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:33 a.m.

"The gentleman may have shot himself as officers were approaching the vehicle," Craig Harvey, a spokesman with the Los Angeles County Coroner, told the Daily News.

Bowdy played basketball in college and earned a master's degree in education from the University of Texas at Arlington, according to his acting profile on IMDB.com.

3. Unidentified Woman, age N/A

A woman sat in her car Wednesday cutting herself as she went on Facebook Live telling viewers she wanted to take her life, officials said. A crisis center in Idaho talked to the woman that morning, which led officials to believe she was in Alameda County. The woman was actually in New York but had lived in Idaho before.

Alameda County dispatchers used a series of phone “pings” through a request from telephone companies to triangulate the woman’s location. The pings placed her in Rockville Centre on New York’s Long Island. The dispatchers then notified local police about the incident, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. When Rockville Centre police officers came to the exact street where the woman was located, they found her unconscious. The officers took the unidentified woman to a hospital, Kelly said.

“The ball was in our court, and we had to figure out what to do,” Kelly told reporters. “There’s not really a game plan in terms of how to do this, but there are certain mechanisms in place, certain technology we can use.”

4. Unidentified woman, 23

A woman from Lajpat Nagar, Delhi posted a live video on Facebook of her attempting to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. In the video, she said things were going wrong in her life and blood was seen coming from her wrists, according to local reports. Her friends, relatives and the landlord of the house intervened and saved her.

"Police went to her house and found out that she was at loggerheads with tenants living in the same building over the issue of her coming home late," Katgahar police station circle officer Vijay Kumar said. "The girl was taken to the police station, and her statement was recorded. Her parents who live in Sambhal were also informed.”

5. Katelyn Nicole Davis, 12

Davis committed posted a 42-minute video where she said she was sexually and physically abused by a relative and didn’t “deserve to live.” "I'm sorry everyone," she said in the live stream video on Facebook on Dec. 30. "I'm really sorry ... I don't deserve to live."

Davis hung herself from a tree in the front yard of her Cedartown, Georgia, home.

6. Erdogan Ceren, 22

After Ceren broke up with his girlfriend, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. The act was broadcast on Facebook Live in October. "No one believed when I said I will kill myself so watch this," he said in the video.