Fort Lauderdale SWAT Team Finds Homeowner In Foreclosure Dead From Self-Inflicted Gunshot

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• Police officers and a SWAT team surrounded a Coral Ridge house Thursday night to investigate a weapons complaint and later found the homeowner dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. For more than five hours, police descended on the neighborhood. They attempted to get the man to come out of the house in the 2100 block of Northeast 54th Court, but to no avail, said Sgt. Frank Sousa, Fort Lauderdale police spokesman. After firing gas canisters into the home, the SWAT team went inside and found the man dead at about 11:15 p.m., Sousa said. Police identified the man as Steven R. Decker, 44.

• County records list Decker as the owner of at least a dozen properties in the Fort Lauderdale area. At least two of them, including the Coral Ridge house, went into foreclosure recently, court records show. On Thursday, Decker received a notice that the Coral Ridge house was to be sold next month at an auction for foreclosed properties, according to the records.

For the story, see Police: Fort Lauderdale man shot himself inside home (SWAT team sent to house over weapons complaint).

In a related story, see ABC News / USA Today: Foreclosures Take an Emotional Toll on Homeowners (Stress, Depression, Suicide Can Accompany the Loss of a Home).

Go here for other posts on foreclosures and suicide.

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