5. Daniel Jones Commits Suicide
On April 30, 1998, at around 3:00pm an incident was unfolding on the Los Angeles freeway. Live television cameras were on target of a freeway chase, gripped with what might happen next – but they could have never predicted what would unfold. The chase first caught attention as fellow motorists began to call into police that an erratic driver was pointing his shotgun at fellow drivers. During the middle of the evening commute, Daniel Jones, who had been driving his pickup truck, parked his car in the middle of the busy freeway and blocked traffic. He unraveled a banner protesting HMOs (organizations that provide assistance for life insurance) and set his truck on fire before he shot himself in the head. The headline for the LA Times the next day read, “Man Kills Self as City Watches.” Jones, who was suffering from HIV, had been having a hard time securing care and clearly felt like he had no more options than to die as his last act of protest. The headline for the LA Times the next day read, “Man Kills Self as City Watches.”
Discussion about this post