By Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press
As they planned his funeral, those who knew Mike Waleskowski said they never could have imagined that he would have killed his family -- and then himself.
But, psychologists said, as irrational an act as it may have seemed, suicide among police officers is more common than most people know. And, they said, in Waleskowski’s mind, he was trying to save himself and his family from what he believed would have been terrible shame after he was suspended from his job as a Waterford police officer.
“These are people who get deeply depressed,” Louis Schlesinger, a forensic psychology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said of fathers who kill their families. “They do it to save them from the humiliation they would have to endure. They see it as the only way out.”
The crime, known as familicide, is rare and poorly understood Schlesinger said.
The 911 hang-up call made from inside the house might have been Waleskowski, trying to get help, Schlesinger said.
Just before he took his life Sunday morning, Waleskowski wrote and signed a one-page, typewritten letter to Waterford Police Chief John Dean, police said. Waleskowski left it in his minivan parked in the driveway, police said.
Dean would not reveal what the letter said. Other officers who saw it, however, said Waleskowski must have written it just after he was sent home. In it, Waleskowski expressed remorse and apologized to the chief and the entire department for what he had done.
Waleskowski, who was caught on a surveillance camera allegedly taking about $500 from an arrested suspect’s wallet, was confronted in the middle of his shift that started at 9 p.m. Saturday and sent to his Waterford home at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
“He was possibly involved in a felony,” Dean said. “We had to take action.”
As questions about the deaths swirled Tuesday, people who knew Waleskowski said there were no signs that he would kill himself or anyone else.
“I had nothing to indicate any of this,” Dean said.
But, Dean said, there was no thought of arresting Waleskowski. There was no reason to suspect that he would flee, he said. His badge and gun were taken from him, and he was suspended from the department.
“There’s not a police department in the world that would have arrested him,” Dean said.
Nevertheless, police said, when Waleskowski got home, he used another gun -- a small-caliber semiautomatic -- to shoot and kill his 40-year-old wife, Lorna; 9-year-old son, Hayden, and the family’s dog.
He then set fire to the house and shot himself in the head.
Police said the family was found together in the second-floor bedroom. Oakland County Medical Examiner L.J. Dragovic said Lorna Waleskowski and her son were probably killed in their sleep and died before the fire was set.
Before joining the Waterford Police Department five years ago, Waleskowski was a patrol officer with the Orchard Lake Police Department for a decade. He earned outstanding performance evaluations there, colleagues said.
Lorna Waleskowski would bring him homemade dinners, and he often bragged about Hayden.
The killings were “totally out of character,” Orchard Lake Police Chief Fred Rosenau said.
Robert Wolford, a State Police psychologist in Lansing, said the suicide rate for police is two to three times higher than the national average. Often, he said, it is because they run into a situation that they cannot fix or one that will elicit shame.
In about 80 percent of the cases, he said, officers try to get help.
Still, Wolford said, many departments are not aware that suicide rates are so high among police, and there are no standard protocols to deal with officers who might seem suicidal, he said.
Some departments turn to chaplains to help. On Monday, Waterford police brought in a priest to comfort people in the department.
“There is going to be a lot of anguish,” said Joyce Gulley, a grief counselor for the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office. She consoled the survivors of the Waleskowski family who traveled from Ohio and Florida.
Many colleagues, schoolmates and police officers will be grieving, she said. Despite the homicides and suicide, she said, Waleskowski was a part of the Waterford Police Department -- and those who worked with him will feel a loss.
A memorial service for the family and visitation is scheduled for 3 pm. to 9 p.m. today at Riverside Chapel Simpson-Modetz Funeral Home, 5630 Pontiac Lake Road in Waterford.
A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Faith Baptist Church, 3411 Airport Road, also in Waterford. The family will be cremated.