Coroner’s inquest: Man wanted to die at hands of police

Jen Lawson

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

The last time Laurie Bennett saw her boyfriend Larry Dague, they had argued over a phone call to her ex-husband.

"He couldn't understand why I was being so nice to my ex," Bennett testified at a coroner's inquest Friday. "I told him we have to be civil because of our daughter."

Dague, a 35-year-old construction worker, told her he needed to cool off, got on his bicycle and pedaled away from the home they shared.

They had dated for a turbulent four years, often arguing over his drug use, Bennett said. Bennett didn't consider their fight that day that unusual and as far she was concerned it hadn't broken them up, she said. But Dague apparently thought it had -- and for good.

Hours later Dague called 911 twice from pay phones and said he wanted to die but didn't want to do it himself, authorities said.

"There are two alternatives," Dague told a 911 call taker on a tape played in court Friday. "take your life or provoke someone to do it for you."

Metro Police testified Dague chose the latter route, and a coroner's inquest jury on Friday agreed with them. After hearing a day's worth of testimony on the case, the jurors deliberated for about 15 minutes before ruling that officers Greg Hazen, Keven Dumesic and Michael Horn were justified. Those officers shot Dague a total of 20 times in a parking lot on Decatur Boulevard near Oakey Boulevard in the early morning hours of April 7.

Dague had allegedly pointed a metal object at them, which police thought was a gun but turned out to be a black metal carabiner attached to a piece of rope tied into a small hangman's noose.

Dague had first called 911 from a Wal-Mart at Decatur and Charleston about 2:30 a.m. He said he was suicidal and and asked what services were available, according to the tape. The call-taker sent police to talk to Dague but he was gone when officers arrived at the store.

He again called 911 less than an hour later from a gas station at Decatur and Charleston and asked for a suicide prevention hotline number.

The call-taker gave him the number and tried tried talking him out of killing himself. She told him maybe he just needs to be on medication.

"What I want to do is harm myself to prove to (Bennett) how I feel about her," Dague said on the tape.

While he was still on the phone, an ambulance crew and the police officers who had been looking for him at Wal-Mart found him at the gas station. Lt. Walter Dodds said he responded to the call because he thought it sounded like a Dague might try to provoke police into shooting him, the kind of case that "can be potentially dangerous for everyone involved."

When police arrived, Dague hung up the phone and began backing away from the officers, police said. He had his hand under his shirt and police thought he was holding a handgun, they testified.

Dague told the officers: "Don't make me do to you what I want done to myself," Horn said.