San Diego

A 32-year-old woman shot herself to death early Monday despite nearly three hours of police efforts to talk her out of suicide, a police spokesman said.

Lynnette Holler called National City police at about 4 a.m. and warned them that she would jump off the Coronado Bridge, police spokesman Dave Cohen said. Police arrived to find Holler at the Dewey Street and National Avenue intersection under the bridge.

Holler was holding a gun to her head and threatening to pull the trigger, Cohen said, as she repeatedly told police, “Kill me; shoot me.”

Cohen said Holler was apparently distraught over a personal relationship and police knew the woman from previous suicide attempts.

About 7 a.m., Cohen said, she put the gun to the right side of her head and appeared to be saying a prayer.

“When she put a death grip on the weapon, it looked certain that she would shoot herself,” Cohen added.

He said that was when police threw a “flash-bang grenade,” a device meant to momentarily stun someone. Cohen said Holler squeezed the trigger when the grenade detonated.

Holler died shortly after being rushed to UCSD Medical Center.

A Paradise Valley Hospital spokeswoman said Holler received treatment there in December for emotional disorders.

In 1983, police talked Holler out of jumping from the downtown Union Bank Building and, as late as June, officers pulled her off the Coronado Bridge.