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Burbank High alumnus commits suicide at indoor shooting range
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AP Photo/Tony Avelar
Friends and family celebrated the life and mourned the death of 21-year-old Josh Nesbitt today, while the city struggles to make sense of the recent spate of public suicides. A 2006 graduate of Burbank High School, Nesbitt visited the Firing-Line Indoor Shooting Range on Wednesday, November 4th, where he shot himself just after 1 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Nesbitt was a star athlete at Burbank High, serving as captain of the football team his senior year. He then enrolled at Glendale Community College and played linebacker for the GCC Vaqueros in their successful (9-2) 2006 season. His family explained to the Burbank Leader, however, that Josh began exhibiting symptoms of depression earlier this year. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in July and began taking medication, which his father, Craig, said left him “in misery” at first. Recently, though, his mood seemed to improve and, at his request, his mother agreed to take him to the Firing-Line for some target practice. “The next thing you know,” his sister Noelle told the Burbank Leader, “Mom saw him drop to the ground.”
Schizoaffective disorder is characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia (paranoid thoughts, delusions or hallucinations) and either bipolar disorder or depression (feelings of hopelessness, manic mood swings or serious sleep disturbances). It is common for people suffering from this condition to have thoughts of suicide.
Nesbitt’s death is the latest in a series of shocking public suicides in Burbank. The Firing-Line Shooting Range, itself, located at 1060 North Lake Street, has been the site of two suicides this year. In addition to Nesbitt, Burbank resident Stephen Daniels, 64, shot himself at the same location on June 19th. Just eight days later, 29-year old Martin Navarro committed suicide in the back room of Gun World, a firearms dealer on Magnolia Boulevard. On September 12th, a 47-year old Burbank woman leapt to her death from the eighteenth floor of the Holiday Inn Burbank - Media Center. And in perhaps the most publicized case so far this year, Burbank Police Sergeant Neil Thomas Gunn Sr. shot himself in a hillside neighborhood on October 29th.
The number of suicides in Burbank in 2009 has more than doubled since last year. If you are having thoughts of suicide or know anyone who is, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The service is free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
For more info:
Visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website
Read Josh Nesbitt’s obituary at the Burbank Leader
Read the official press release from the Burbank Police Department
Photo: Esther Han, student at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA, which has been devastated by three student suicides, writes a message on a Post-it to stick it on the school campus walls on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009. Esther and 2 other students created a student-run support group ROCK, also known as "Reach Out. Care. Know." after the three Gunn students who committed suicide.
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