NEW YORK—It was hard to pinpoint when Glen Hochman’s mind began to unravel. Before he killed two of his teenage daughters, his three dogs, and himself during the early hours of Feb. 21, Hochman was a retired police officer who had received zero complaints during his 22-year career.
Throughout most of his career, Hochman’s job mainly consisted of pulling people over—an exasperating event for most drivers—yet those who knew him said Hochman’s kindly demeanor tended to put people at ease.
Three weeks after the murder−suicide, the Hochman’s driveway in Harrison is covered with deep layers of snow. There are no footprints, no signs of life. Their lost world is preserved inside; a row of delicately framed photographs of Hochman smiling, with his arms wrapped snugly around his brunette daughters and wife, are spread across a table behind the front door, as if to remind the family they were loved each time they entered or exited.
“He was a devoted father. That’s the scary part,” said Warren Roth, a police union lawyer who knew Hochman for more than 25 years. “I spoke with several officers close to him. No one knows why. I don’t think we'll ever know why.”
Yet it is critical to understand why, because police suicides, particularly suicides among retired officers, happen more often than they are reported. The chilling Hochman tragedy sheds light on a long-overlooked problem with the culture of police departments: a high rate of traumatized officers and a reluctance to seek mental health care.
According to research by John Violanti, a University of Buffalo professor who specializes in police health, 15 to 18 percent of working officers in the United States have undiagnosed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
