Paragraphs 19 & 20 read: “Since being released from
prison, Tokarev had been “suffering with major depression,” Good
said. She said he had been taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety
medication in prison but was unable to find medical assistance upon his release.
“She said he told her, “Olesya, I feel sick. My body feels
so sick, and my brain feels like it’s hurting.”
http://www.twincities.com/ci_13922340
He left a note, stole a truck and fled into a hail of
bullets
Sister says ex-con brother was suicidal and hoping
the police would kill him
Nick Ferraro
nferraro@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 12/03/2009 11:34:01
PM CST
The sister of the man wounded by police Wednesday night in
downtown Hastings said she believes he was trying to commit “suicide by cop.
“I’m going all the way out. Once they pull me over or anything I’m
shooting them until I run out of bullets,” Roman Tokarev wrote in a note his
sister Olesya Good’s husband found Wednesday before she alerted police.
Hours later, officers shot Tokarev, 27, after he allegedly pointed a gun
at them and tried to ram their squad cars during a chase.
“After
thinking about everything and seeing everything that happened, I think he was
trying to make the police shoot him to death … kind of commit his own suicide
by them shooting him,” Good, 29, said.
Tokarev, who emigrated from
Estonia with his family in 1996, was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday
after surgery to remove a bullet lodged near his heart, his sister said.
“The way it sounds, he was shot six to eight times,” she said, adding he
was hit twice in the arm and twice in the leg. “His left hand is totally
paralyzed.”
Tokarev had been living at his sister’s home in Elk River
and under intensive supervised release reserved for high-risk offenders
through the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
He was released
from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater on May 4 after serving time
for a 2005 aggravated robbery conviction in Hennepin County.
Good called
police after her husband found the note at their house about 1 p.m. and
discovered Tokarev had taken the family’s pickup truck.
“We asked them
to help us find him and save his life,” she said.
Within hours, a
warrant was issued for Tokarev’s arrest, according to the Bureau of Criminal
Apprehension.
Authorities were told that Tokarev, who also has
convictions for assault and vehicle theft, could be armed and had threatened
officers in the note, BCA spokesman Andy Skoogman said.
Tokarev was
spotted about 8 p.m. in Hastings, and federal, state, city and Dakota County
officers tried to stop him by boxing in the stolen pickup with their vehicles
near the intersection of Minnesota 55 and U.S. 61, the BCA said.
Tokarev
rammed the squad cars and pointed a gun at officers, Skoogman said.
Shots were fired, and Tokarev drove off, leading a chase through several
residential blocks. At U.S. 61 and Fourth Street, officers finally stopped the
truck. More shots were fired, and Tokarev was struck several times, authorities
said.
Investigators found a weapon in the vehicle, Skoogman said.
Good and Skoogman said it’s unclear why Tokarev went to Hastings.
The three officers who fired the shots have been placed on paid
administrative leave, a standard procedure after a police shooting.
Since being released from prison, Tokarev had been “suffering with major
depression,” Good said. She said he had been taking antidepressants and
anti-anxiety medication in prison but was unable to find medical assistance upon
his release.
She said he told her, “Olesya, I feel sick. My body feels
so sick, and my brain feels like it’s hurting.”
In his note, Tokarev
wrote that he “lost it” after a weekend visit with his parole officer.
“Apparently when (the parole officer) was over here, some things were
said or something that kind of triggered everything,” Good said.
Shari
Burt, communications director for the Department of Corrections, confirmed that
Tokarev was seen by a supervision agent Sunday, but, citing the investigation,
would not respond to Good’s claim.
Burt said Tokarev was on house arrest
but had earned his way off electronic monitoring by obtaining and maintaining
employment.
Tokarev apologized in the note to his family “for all I’ve
done” and wrote, “I will not be back. It’s my time to go. Please kiss everyone
for me. … I will remember you all until eternity.”
Good said he ended
the note by writing, “I got a gun on me that I purchased and I’m not going back
to prison. I love you all. I love you all. I love you all.”
Nick Ferraro
can be reached at 651-228-2173.
My high minded and beautiful son took his own life at 49 yrs. He walked up to a nearby cemetery and shot himself in the chest, lying there to die alone.
HIs much loved wife and her family, staged an intervention, with an evening of name calling and recriminations. His wife left the family home with their two young daughters, to stay with her parents, coming back each day with needed items. the family decided to take all alcohol, zoloft (which he was on for weeks) and ambien on for years away from him, leaving him alone in the large home with no car, money, or phone,etc. They thought they were doing the best thing. He had developed antiphosphilipid syndrome about 9 mos. earlier and was on Warfarin, heparin amoung other meds. He had lost his spleen, and had other clots in his aorta. He had not slept in 5 to 10 days and just learned that he had cancer of the prostate (early stage).
How could this family have better handled this tragedy that cost a yet young and vibrant man.
thank you.
the family