Laredo suicide-prevention committee hears January report showing multiple youth attempts, one local fatality

Sergeant Teddy Bartobello of the Laredo Police Department told the Suicide Prevention Committee on Jan. 28 that January 2026 produced seven attempted-suicide calls, 13 attempted-suicide reports, 49 emergency-detention reports, 60 emergency-detention calls and one death by suicide.

Bartobello read summaries of individual incidents, citing a Jan. 1 self-inflicted gunshot (case no. 2026441) and multiple adolescent attempts by overdose, cutting or hanging. He described a Jan. 27 call at 200 Valencia Avenue in which family members found a youth deceased by hanging; Laredo Fire Paramedics and patrol officer Ali Cavazos responded, and detectives led by Francisco Castaneda recovered a letter and videos left by the victim. Bartobello said the victim had documented histories of depression, alcoholism and bipolar disorder and had been placed on an emergency detention on Jan. 22.

The report prompted committee questions about school-related incidents. Members noted that two teen attempts occurred on Fridays during school hours (a 15‑year‑old at about 2 p.m. and a 13‑year‑old about 12 p.m.). Bartobello said school resource officers and other first responders sometimes transport students to hospitals without completing the emergency-detention form, which can cause information loss between school, law enforcement and clinical providers. "It's every police officer's responsibility, whoever makes that first contact, to fill out the emergency detention form," Bartobello said, adding that his unit can provide training and help with transportation and follow-up.

Committee members asked whether more details about what triggered teen attempts—bullying, depression or other crises—were available. Bartobello said some clinical and family information remains confidential with caseworkers but that the unit would attempt to obtain additional contextual information when possible.

The presentation also included a heat map of calls by city-council district showing temporal hotspots (around 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., and higher volume on Fridays) and geographic concentrations in specific council districts. A committee member asked for the PowerPoint so members could share the district-level maps with their council representatives; the chair agreed and asked staff to circulate the materials.

The meeting's public-safety takeaways were procedural and programmatic: the police unit urged stricter completion of emergency-detention paperwork, offered to provide training for school staff and officers, and flagged the need for better information handoffs between schools, hospitals and behavioral-health providers. The committee observed that many of the adolescent cases illustrate the need for pre-crisis prevention, school-based interventions and clearer protocols for transfers between agencies.

The committee paused for a moment of silence for those affected and for the life lost before proceeding with business.