A Libertarian candidate for the North Carolina state Senate was taken into custody following alarming online posts where he expressed a desire to end his life.
Jonathan D. Miller made comments suggesting he aimed to engage in a gunfight with the police, beginning those revelations on Sunday evening.
‘The entire police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be entertaining,’ he mentioned in one of his posts.
“I’ve decided I no longer wish to live and will be ending my life tonight,” he stated in a post. “I understand this may upset some of you, but the suffering has become unbearable. I detest my life, and each moment feels unbearable. This pain ends tonight. Please don’t reach out. I have no desire to talk.”
He also remarked on Monday, “The whole police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be fun.”
“I messed up by talking to the negotiator for so long that they’ve managed to box me in. They’ve got dogs; I think I’m done for,” his final message on Monday conveyed.
By around 3 p.m. that day, Cary Police had confirmed that he was taken into custody without any incident.
Initially, the police had conducted a welfare check at his residence on Glen Echo Lane at 8:26 a.m. after receiving multiple calls from worried individuals who saw Miller’s posts.
“He possessed a firearm and was instructed not to engage with it, but he ran away,” reported Cary Police Chief Terry Sult during a press conference.
The situation led to a lengthy standoff at his apartment complex, according to Sult.
“He was clearly in a dark place,” Sult remarked. “It seemed like he was on the edge.”
During the standoff, Miller reached out to WRAL-TV.
“I was quite depressed and suicidal last night and ended up posting a kind of suicide note on X, which, surprisingly, went viral,” he shared in one of the calls. “Honestly, millions have seen it. Usually, my posts don’t get more than 50 views, but this one exploded. I spent the night crying, feeling angry, upset, and depressed, just all mixed emotions. I was exhausted this morning, but still had things to handle. I didn’t go through with it.”
He elaborated on why he was evading the police.
“I don’t want them to take me into custody and ship me off to a hospital,” he explained.
“If I get sent to the hospital, I’ll only have about 15 to 30 seconds each day with a doctor, and that’s my time to discuss my issues,” he noted. “They’ll prescribe some medication that won’t help, and I’ll find myself back in the same situation within a few days.”
He even joked about the police’s failure to catch him.
“They’ve been after me since this morning,” Miller commented. “They’re not very good at it. They could definitely use some more training in tracking someone down.”
