A distraught North Carolina father who became suicidal after losing his son in a messy custody battle was killed earlier this week during a police standoff where he threatened to take his own life before reportedly turning the gun on police.
via WSAV News
A man shot and killed by Durham Police Tuesday had recently lost custody of his son, a close friend of the family said.
Officers were called to the area of the Bronze Bull statue on Corcoran Street in downtown Durham Monday after an apparently distraught man brandished a gun around 4:19 p.m.
Durham Police negotiated with the man for about an hour when he pointed the gun at officers, which prompted an officer to fire at him.
The man, who was identified by a family friend as 26-year-old Derek Walker, died shortly after being transported to an area hospital.
Just a day prior, Walker had taken to his Facebook page saying, “Don’t call me and don’t talk to me because I’m not responding. I hope I die very soon and a fast death because this world I live in is sorry.”
In the post, Walker, who was a mortician at Hanes Funeral Home, painted a bleak picture of a man who had lost custody of his son following a bitter custody battle.
“I can’t take [what] my son’s mother is putting me through,” Walker wrote. “She has filled [my son's] head up with so much false stuff. He has told me I’m a bad father, I’m not a good dad.”
He continued, “I’m ready to die because I have no reason to live right now.”
What a horrible story to have to explain to this little boy, who now has to grow up without his father.
