Crime & Safety

Suicide Ruled in December Key Bridge Death

Park Police sergeant died responding to suicide.

The U.S. Park Police officer was responding to an attempted suicide, according to documents released by the Metropolitan Police (MPD) on Friday.

Sgt. Michael Boehm and other Park Police and MPD officers responded on Dec. 16 to the base of the Key Bridge near the C&O Canal for the report of an injured person. Sources at the time told Patch that a pair of joggers found the man near the base of the Key Bridge on the at 34th Street around 5 p.m.

The man, a 45-year-old Washington resident, was taken to a nearby hospital, police said then. He died that night. Boehm collapsed on the scene and died at Georgetown University Hospital that evening.

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During the investigation, police closed several lanes of the Key Bridge intermittently as well as Prospect Street at 34th and 35th Streets. 

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The D.C. medical examiner performed an autopsy on Dec. 18, and declared the death a suicide, according to the document police released after Patch filed a Freedom of Information Act request. He died from "multiple blunt impact injuries," according to the document. MPD closed its investigation into the case Feb. 27 when the Homicide Branch received the autopsy findings.


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