{"id":100514,"date":"2018-04-07T12:58:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T18:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/shooting-death-on-south-chestnut-street-in-cortez-ruled-a-suicide\/"},"modified":"2018-04-07T12:58:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T18:58:59","slug":"shooting-death-on-south-chestnut-street-in-cortez-ruled-a-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/shooting-death-on-south-chestnut-street-in-cortez-ruled-a-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Shooting death on South Chestnut Street in Cortez ruled a suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Cortez man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 31, while his wife and her three children were in the house, according to police.<\/p>\n

Lt. Andy Brock said Cortez police responded to a house on South Chestnut Street at 10:39 p.m. Saturday for a report of a suicide. Ryan Sanzone, 26, was reportedly found dead after shooting himself with a 9 mm handgun.<\/p>\n

It was the seventh suicide reported in Montezuma County in 2018.<\/p>\n

Brock said Sanzone\u2019s wife, Shanea Sanzone, and her three children, ages 9, 7 and 1, were in the house at the time of his death. Two other adults were present after the shooting, but Brock said it wasn\u2019t clear whether they were staying in the house. He said one of the adults was Lucas Keck, listed as a registered sex offender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brock said police weren\u2019t sure who owned the gun that was found with Sanzone. He said the detective\u2019s report would be available this week.<\/p>\n

Employees at Sanzone\u2019s workplace, J. Fargo\u2019s Family Dining, have planned a \u201ccelebration of life\u201d in his honor for Thursday, April 12, according to the restaurant\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jon Russell, Shanea Sanzone\u2019s former husband and the father of the two oldest children, said they are safe, although he said that one child who was awake during Sanzone\u2019s death might need counseling. He also said he was concerned about the way Cortez police handled the incident, saying they had not notified him. He also said he was concerned that no child protective services personnel were called to the scene.<\/p>\n

Brock said the police department typically doesn\u2019t call child protective services to a crime scene involving children unless there is no parent available to take custody of them.<\/p>\n

A caseworker at Montezuma County Social Services declined to say on Monday whether the department was investigating the case.<\/p>\n

Because Sanzone\u2019s death was an \u201cobvious suicide,\u201d Brock said, there was no full autopsy, but results from a toxicology report were pending.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers said Sanzone\u2019s death was the seventh suicide this year, compared with three by April 5, 2017. Deavers said the county usually averages about 12 suicides per year, a high rate for a county with a population of less than 30,000. According to 2015 data<\/a> released by the Colorado Department of Health, Southwest Colorado \u2013 Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta, Dolores and San Juan counties \u2013 had an average of 21.1 suicides per 100,000 people, above the state average of 19.5.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Southwest corner is the worst,\u201d Deavers said.<\/p>\n

Out of the seven suicides reported in 2018, six were committed with a gun, Deavers said. Only one victim was confirmed to have been sober at the time of death, and toxicology reports reveal at least four victims were under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or both. Deavers said the ages of the victims ranged from the 20s into the 80s.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County residents struggling with depression, substance abuse or suicidal thoughts may call Axis Health System\u2019s 24-hour crisis hotline at 970-247-5245 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255. Axis\u2019 Montezuma County offices are at 635 E. Empire St.<\/p>\n

\n

Suicide prevention resources <\/h4>\n

Help for people with suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering suicide can be found from these sources:
\n AXIS HEALTH SYSTEM:<\/strong>
\n 24-hour hotline at 247-5245.
\n NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE:<\/strong>
\n (800) 273-TALK (8255) or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 741741.
\n RED NACIONAL DE PREVENCI\u00d3N DEL SUICIDIO:<\/strong>
\n (888) 628-9454.
\n NATIONAL CRISIS TEXT HOTLINE:<\/strong>
\n 741741
\n BOYS TOWN HOTLINE:<\/strong>
\n (800) 448-3000.
\n SAFE2TELL COLORADO:<\/strong>
\n (877) 542-7233 or online at https:\/\/safe2tell.org.
\n COLORADO CRISIS SUPPORT LINE:<\/strong>
\n (844) 493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255 or online at http:\/\/www.coloradocrisisservices.org\/ to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths about any crisis, 24 hours a day.
\n TREVOR PROJECT:<\/strong>
\n (866) 488-7386. Crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth via online chat, text or phone.
\n SOUTHERN UTE COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM:<\/strong>
\n Visit www.sucap.org and click on Suicide Prevention for a list of trained gatekeepers.
\n SECOND WIND FUND:<\/strong>
\n (720) 962-0706. This is not a crisis hotline, but the fund is available to youths who face social or financial barriers to crisis counseling. The organization requires a referral by a school counselor or mental-health professional.
\n AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION:<\/strong>
\n Colorado chapter information available at https:\/\/afsp.org\/chapter\/afsp-colorado\/
\n FOR MEN:<\/strong>
\n A website for adult men contemplating suicide, who often are unwilling to seek help, is available at www.mantherapy.org.
\n The Journal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

county\u2019s seventh in 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,51,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-police","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100514"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}