A 34-year-old Juneau resident shot herself in front of the Dimond Courthouse on Monday morning, according to the Juneau Police Department.<\/p>\n
Police said Miranda Ellen Davison shot herself in the chest with a handgun around 11:05 a.m. She was taken by ambulance to Bartlett Regional Hospital and declared deceased at 11:37 a.m.<\/p>\n
Lt. David Campbell said Davison\u2019s next of kin in Juneau has been notified.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she was taken to the hospital, she didn\u2019t have any identification on her, but we found something on her that kind of gave us a lead into who she might be,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe supervisor of the day, Sgt. (Chris) Gifford, went to the house, and this would\u2019ve been the third house we went to as far as thinking it might be this person. He ended up getting the family members, transporting them to the hospital and then the family members made the positive ID at the hospital,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
Randy Greer was one of the first people on scene after the gunshot. Greer, an IT tech for the Department of Health and Social Services, was walking to his office in the Alaska Office Building on Main Street when he first saw Davison get out a vehicle downhill of the courthouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI happened to notice her because her pants were sagging very low, and I made a mental comment about it,\u201d Greer said. \u201cShe got out of the vehicle and quickly walked up towards the court plaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greer didn\u2019t see anyone else get out of the vehicle, which he described as distinct and easily identifiable. He said he saw it drive away, but he didn\u2019t see the license plate number.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe walked up to the courthouse, but she did not enter the building. She just walked in front and pulled the trigger,\u201d Greer said. \u201cIt all happened easily within a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greer said he\u2019s been involved in emergency situations before and knew what to do. He ran to the woman, kicked the gun away and assessed the situation. Two other people were also nearby and called 911. Greer said he kept an eye on the gun until police arrived.<\/p>\n
Greer found the entrance and exit wounds in Davison\u2019s chest, saw that she wasn\u2019t breathing and didn\u2019t have a pulse, and started CPR before others took over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty sure that she was dead,\u201d Greer said.<\/p>\n
The shooting caused a stir in downtown Juneau. Fourth Street was closed in front of the Alaska State Capitol, and the area in front of the courthouse was blocked off for about an hour. The Capitol was briefly locked down.<\/p>\n
Juneau police are continuing to investigate Davison\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to find out why this happened,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThe Medical Examiner\u2019s Office (in Anchorage) is going to be able to tell us if there were any substances or alcohol on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell said the case will likely remain open until police get a medical examiner\u2019s report in four to eight weeks.<\/p>\n
Hilary Young, program coordinator for the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition, said anyone who\u2019s suicidal or struggling with depression should reach out for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of time suicide is silenced,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt\u2019s an uncomfortable subject, and people don\u2019t want to talk about it and they don\u2019t want to admit they\u2019re having a hard time and we\u2019re trying to break that. We want people to reach out and get help and talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young said it\u2019s just as important for those surrounding someone struggling to do something.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re struggling, depressed or suicidal, it\u2019s hard enough to admit it or reach out, but if you\u2019re someone who\u2019s noticing it, then you can be the person to reach out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
No matter what time of day, Young said, there\u2019s help available at the Alaska CARELINE at 1-877-266-HELP.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
Editors note: Are you in crisis and need help? If you are looking for help for yourself or others, please talk to someone. Call the Alaska CARELINE at 1-877-266-HELP, or visit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline<\/a>, the Alaska Community Mental Health Centers<\/a>, or juneausuicideprevention.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A 34-year-old Juneau resident shot herself in front of the Dimond Courthouse on Monday morning, according to the Juneau Police Department. Police said Miranda Ellen Davison shot herself in the chest with a handgun around 11:05 a.m. She was taken by ambulance to Bartlett Regional Hospital and declared deceased at 11:37 a.m. Lt. David Campbell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":33900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33899"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}