New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-11-12
4 POLICEMAN COMMITS SUICIDE.
INSOMNIA BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN TIE CAUSE
LIS OOMPANION: NOT SURPRISED.

his COMPANION: NOT SURPRISED.
OF all the Wild weird messages that ever found
their way into Police Headquarters the strangest
was which reached the telegraph room In the
dark h0uis Of yesterday morning. Just after nall past
o'clock the solitary telegraph operator left on duty
heard the ring Of tho telephone bell This was the
whisper that over the wire There's dead
policeman lying in the roadway in front Of No. 800
-cvcnthayc." Nothing In his experience had pre-
pared the operator for message like this, ana lie
n,ary tumbcd OIL hi, chair with astoni-hment. As
soon as be had recovered his he sent telegraph
message Nineteenth Precinct Police station
The dead man was Policeman Isaac Dewitt Coleman,
who had lcft the Thirtichst. police station on the
midnight platoon, and he had sent bullet through
his brain. James Graham. driver II mnil-Wagon,
drove down sevonth-av". just after o'clock In the
morning, half asleep and noddlng on his seat, when,
without the slightest warning the horse SHED 50
violently As to nearly throw him oE the wagon.
Graham jumped down. aud there in front Of the horse,
which stood painting with fright, lay the body OF a
policeman I'm full uniform. The hat lay beside the
the body and In the hat was revolver. In an
Instant Graham had mounted TO his seat again, and
driven ut gallop to Dodd's Express Stables, oiiY
a block away lie II was who broke the news to the
operator at Police headquarters. Just minute
lefore Policeman Patrick ChnniOn standing on the
corner Of Thirty sixthst had heard the report Of The
pistol! and folowin. several men who were running
in the direction Of the sound. came upon Coleman,
who was still breathing. Crnnion lifted him INTO
u cab and drove to the station, but before he reached
there Coleman was dead.
No one IN the Nineteenth Precinct squad was
surprised when they his body. Their only
matter Of surprise that he had not taken his life
MOTHS ago. His talk betrayed the bent OF BIS
tIouehs and h. had SAID that death was better than
nfe for man who had lost the power TO sleep. In
many weeks Coleman had been almost entirely with
out rest II may be that the death Of hts little child
had broken his heart. Night after night he lay down
ou his cot but to sleep. and In the morning he
would report for duty and 90 ont on post weary ana
broken.
Koundsnlan shields had looked for him on his post
Yesterday morning for nearly nm hour, ara at 40
o'clock found him at For y->"oond 81. Coleman mace
uo r'py the roun !-man's question. ana was
promptly booked for complaint Al headquarters.
Shield. walled with Coleman iron Forty y-sccOhd 10
II TI!riv>iAthst.. hui could get no word rom hlm
Half an hour later Coleman was dead.
The dad man had been four years In the service
Il tie cty. having received his appointment on sep
icmbcr l.. 1883 lie twenty seven years old
and llvrd With his wife AT No. l2f
Austcrtamave. lie cane OF good fanny, ana
II Is said that his father clergyman. Ills
record was good he lived happily with his wife and
apart from the reasons already stated, there Is no
known cause for his suicide.