Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

Ronald Merle McNutt (May 23, 1987 – August 31, 2020) was a resident of New Albany, Mississippi in the United States, and had served in the United States military in Iraq. McNutt worked at a Toyota plant. He was known to have suffered from a variety of mental health problems, such as depression as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the latter of which was a direct consequence of his time served in the Iraq War in 2007 and 2008.[4] In addition to this, he was also dealing with a recent break-up with his girlfriend; some media reports also said that he lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, though Rolling Stone disputed this.[2] McNutt was a Christian who regularly attended church.[5][6]

On August 31, 2020, McNutt began a livestream on Facebook. His best friend, Joshua Steen, noticed the stream. He did not initially find it unusual as McNutt had routinely done livestreams in the past, but he became alarmed when he realized that McNutt was intoxicated and holding a single-shot rifle.[2] Steen allegedly attempted to intervene numerous times, particularly when McNutt misfired the rifle, hoping that Facebook would cut off the stream and end the video feed, preventing people from seeing into McNutt's home while Steen sought police intervention. Facebook refused to cut the stream, claiming that the stream was not in any violation of its platform's guidelines.[7]

As the stream went on, McNutt's mobile phone rang frequently. The last call he received was from his ex-girlfriend to which he answered, leading to a brief argument between the two. After the exchange, the woman ended the call on McNutt, and in response he took hold of the rifle and addressed the audience for the last time, saying, "Hey guys, I guess that's it." before proceeding to aim the rifle under the chin and fatally shoot himself.

Almost immediately afterwards, the phone he'd left on his desk began to ring. A pet dog owned by McNutt's friend wandered into frame shortly after the gunshot. The stream had been captured by multiple users.[8]

The New Albany Police Department had been called to the scene during the livestream, but did not enter McNutt's apartment until after they heard the fatal gunshot, his phone was still ringing as officers searched the scene. Police Chief Chris Robertson reported that his officers had secured the perimeter and evacuated nearby residents before attempting to communicate with McNutt via speakerphone, to no avail.[9]

A final message by Ronnie McNutt was later discovered on Facebook, declaring, "Someone in your life needs to hear that they matter. That they are loved. That they have a future. Be the one to tell them".[10]

Two days after his suicide, McNutt was buried in Snowdown Church of Christ Cemetery in Prentiss County, Mississippi.[11]

• 1974: Newsanchor Christine Chubbuck shot herself live on the news behind the ear with a .38-caliber revolver, believed to be the first televised suicide.[31]
• 1987: Politician and state treasurer of Pennsylvania R. Budd Dwyer, facing a sentence of up to 55 years' imprisonment and a $300,000 fine after a conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury, and racketeering conviction, shot himself through the mouth with a .357 magnum, also live on the news.[32]
• 2007: Kevin Whitrick, 42, died by suicide after hanging himself on a WeChat insult room.
• 2008: Abraham Biggs, 19, died by suicide after consuming significant quantities of prescription drugs, and streaming his suicide live on Justin.tv under the name feels_like_ecstacy. Before he fell unconscious and subsequently died, Biggs was also chatting on a bodybuilding forum, where he had reportedly threatened suicide on numerous occasions.[33]
• 2010: A 21-year-old man named Marcus Jannes from Järna, Stockholm, hanged himself and livestreamed it after making a post on the Internet forum Flashback.org, in which he wrote that he had swallowed some painkillers and was going to hang himself.[34]
• 2016: A 22-year-old Turkish man named Erdogan Ceren killed himself with a shot to the heart in a Facebook livestream (on October 10, 2016, around 3pm) after his girlfriend cheated and broke up with him.[35]
• 2016: Océane Ebem, an 18-year-old woman from Égly in the suburbs of Paris, livestreamed a video testimonial claiming she was sexually assaulted before throwing herself under a train.[36]
• 2016: Katelyn Nicole Davis, a 12-year-old girl from Polk County, Georgia who livestreamed her hanging herself on 30 December 2016.[37]
• 2018: Shuaib Aslam, an 18-year-old Pakistani-American who lived in Stockton, California shot himself with a Kel-Tec KSG shotgun and livestreamed it on YouTube while simultaneously being on a voice chat with his friends.[38]
• 2019: Gleb Korablev, an 18-year-old university student from Moscow, Russia, livestreamed himself on social media network VK died by suicide via self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The video was notorious for sparking an internet legend claiming it is cursed. The video has been flipped several times by editing. This makes it very hard to find the original.[39]
• 2019: A young man from Sindh, Pakistan named Muneer Ahmad Kalor shot himself with a handgun on Facebook Live after a fight with his friend.[40]
• 2021: A 28-year-old man from San Diego, California named Angel Hernandez Grado died by suicide on Instagram since he allegedly held his girlfriend captive for two days.[41]
• 2021: A Chinese influencer named Luo Xiao Mao Mao Zi drank pesticides while livestreaming.[42]