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I am only wondering if there might have been a way to help him keep from "losing it" .

I doubt it. People who have become loose cannons aren't easy to regulate. These laws and amendments and restraining orders only serve to trip up a few of those who intend harm but are not this quick or competent.

You could be right. As I read the research, most of these cases are "dances of mutual destruction". However, the media accounts do make much about the Officers anguish at losing his career, and any meaningful means of making a living.

If he had been left with the ability to make a living, perhaps he could have found the strength to start a new life. I doubt if he saw that as an option.

I believe it was the Chinese philosopher Sun Tse (forgive my spelling) who said that you should always leave your enemy a way out. Because of his carreer, she knew that she was destroying his future prospects for a life. The restraining order did not protect her, as many have mentioned. Isn't it just possible that it exacerbated the situation?

If he had been left with the ability to make a living

He could have changed careers ---what about older people who get laid off? They aren't left with the ability to make a living but don't go and shoot the management. Anyhow what he did is certainly going to affect his ability to keep that job ---so shooting her and himself isn't why he did it.

It may have exacerbated the situation, but I don't know that I could advise her *not* to get a restraining order if the threat was real, which we now know it was. If he were a real threat and I were her, I would have wanted all the legal paper-trail possible to protect myself if he were to kick my door down and I had to shoot him. Shooting someone you know in self-defense is always sticky, especially a spouse.

He might have lost his job in this (rightfully). But only a twisted mind turns that into a murder/suicide. Loss of even a pinnacle job is only a life-ending event if there are critical things missing from a man's pysche. New jobs can be found.

To explain a local clarification that is significant: He was chief of Tacoma Police Department, residing in Gig Harbor, where the shooting took place. It sounds like the court papers were filed in Gig Harbor, a neighboring small town. This is a completely different jurisdiction than the one he is chief of. His only real power in that court and police system would be a professional courtesy, and not a real one.