Performer at open mic night kills himself

[marmar]

BEND, Ore., April 18 (UPI) -- An open mic night at an Oregon coffee house ended in tragedy when a teenage keyboard performer stabbed and killed himself, authorities said.

Kipp Rusty Walker, 19, was playing keyboard at the Strictly Organic Coffee Company in Bend when he stood up, saying nothing, and repeatedly stabbed himself in the chest, KTVZ-TV, Bend, reported Sunday.

A friend of Walker, who did not want to be named, said he saw it coming.

"I've been preparing for it for a while. I'm sad about it, but I think I'm in shock -- it's like a whirlwind of emotions," the friend said. ..............(more)

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/04/18/Performer-at-open-mic-night-kills-himself/UPI-19511303149531/#ixzz1Jw75UISX

[franzia99]

1. Sad, and what a horrible way to go.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. How terribly sad...

Every week I attend an open mic for poetry, and I can see what this suicide must have looked like. It's horrifying...

He must have been in incredible pain to do this so publicly.

Safe passage to him, and my condolences to all who loved him.

[calimary]

3. He must have been in some dreadful inner torment.

So sad.

[petronius]

4. Very sad - and really horrific. I imagine you've got to be very determined to die

to stab yourself repeatedly...

:(

[aquart]

5. Lotta private ways to kill yourself.

And, while I'm grateful he made it a solo performance, this kid didn't just want to be dead. He wanted to be a tough act to follow.

[grahamhgreen]

6. If I could stick a knife in my heart Suicide right on the stage Would it be enough for your teenage

"It's Only Rock 'n' Roll lyrics
If I could stick my pen in my heart
I'd spill it all over the stage
Would it satisfy ya or would slide on by ya?
Or would you think this boy is strange?
Ain't he strayayange?
If I could win you
if I could sing you
a love song so divine.
Would it be enough for your cheating heart
If I broke down and cried? -
If I criyiyied.

I said I know it's only rock and roll
But I like it.
I said I know
it's only rock and roll
But I like it
like it
yes I do.
Well
I like it
oh yes
I like it
I like it
I said: Can't you see this old boy's getting lonely?
{ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/r/rolling-stones-lyrics/it_s-only-rock-_n_-roll-lyrics.html }

If I could stick a knife in my heart
Suicide right on the stage
Would it be enough for your teenage lust?
Would it help ease your pain?
Ease your brain if I could dig down deep in my heart
Feelings would flood on the page
Would it satisfy ya
would it slide on by ya?
Would you think the boy's insane?
He's insayayane.

I said I know
it's only rock and roll
. . .

Don't you think that you're the only girl around
I bet you think that you're the only woman in town.

I said I know it's only rock and roll"

Wonder what he was singing. Wonder if he was on the medication that causes suicide.
. . .
"

[Still Blue in PDX]

7. All the years this song has been around and never once have I listened to the lyrics.

Strangely and sadly, there are a number of antidepressants that can cause suicidal ideation.

[lonestarnot]

8. Poor guy. Incredibly sad that.

[Newest Reality]

9. An ultimate performance?

We are all taught to cling so tightly to life as if there is no death to reckon with.

Words will not necessarily prevent it, yet we hear the obligatory reactions to suicide as if the people who are pushing it away and giving it reasonable terms that suggest only illness or the preventable, have really given the concept careful and deliberate consideration in any in-depth sense. Life at all costs is sacred, so none will die for what must be dealt with or defended.

We barely understand what we are or what is going on save from what has been and still is told to us by others. Taboos prevail and what is right and wrong is often a cultural inculcation that we rarely look more deeply into in order to obtain a deeper, more resilient and meaningful understanding.

Sometimes, you hear the same thing over and over about a given subject and then it dawns on you that people often repeat what is told to them and it is obvious that they have not given it much thought at all, as if that is what they are supposed to do and venturing deeper could be threatening to something that hides, vague and sinister, behind the unquestioned facade.

[nebenaube]

10. What, you expect an American to torch themselves?

We are a bit more creative than that. This is just another expression of the hopelessness of the new millennium...

[Newest Reality]

11. Nope.

How creative is the repetitive politics that end-up assuring our place in the dynamics of it.

Hope is not a good replacement for actuality, when the concrete idea of having is preferred to the endless and varied vagaries of hope for something else that might be.

What I am talking about is the idea of action that came before us. Your life is your own, or is it? Do you have any power or say so in how it ends, despite what other people might think of your end, especially if you chose it? We can still value life without judging how others choose to end their own. We can hope to try to stop them or prevent their end, but how we judge the decision is another matter all together.

At certain times, people might live and breath and think, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" They may be right or wrong or who knows what, but if they live with that conviction, is it such a bad thing? When you say that, under certain circumstances, it may be a form of suicide and it may not.

So, if people end their lives as a part of art or liberty, it is not my place to decide. Some call it an act of cowardice, stupidity, or mental illness. I don't know enough other than to try to talk young people out of deciding prematurely, as a means to get them to hang around long enough to be more certain about their decision.

[Odin2005]

12. That is FUCKED UP!

[BillyJack]

13. Artists need some recognition/acknowledgement

*hint* hint* Nudge* nudge* nudge*

Even if we totally SUCK - say so *gently*

[stevedeshazer]

14. I'm very sad for this kid.

I hope his family can find peace.

[Lefta Dissenter]

15. How horribly sad

I'm so sorry for all of the suffering that he must have been going through, and for his friends and family, and for everyone who was there to witness this tragedy. :cry:

[Leftist Agitator]

16. This tragedy could have been averted if GUNS weren't so easy to get in the US...

[cbdo2007]

17. selfish and pathetic

Not to kill yourself in general, but to do it in front of other people maybe even children. He's gone so he doesn't care about the thousands of $$ in therapy bills the traumatized audience is going to have to pay because he subjected them to this.

[Name removed]

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[cbdo2007]

19. So what if this causes one of the audience members to kill themselves....

after witnessing this and becoming so distraught that fall into a deep depression? Doesn't that further the cycle??

It isn't about being exposed to death or suicide but the 15 people there are free of blame. Those aren't the same people who caused the trauma to that idiot, it was probably his family. Now they've all got thousands of $ in therapy and he's free from all his misery. I don't care what your problem is but to inflict that pain on innocent bystanders should be a criminal act in itself...except he wouldn't care about this of course, it's just all about HIM and his problems, not about the lives HE could now be ruining.

[Name removed]

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[Dappleganger]

20. How tragic--19 is such a volatile age as it is.