CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Suicide Prevention Aide Admits Attack

A former Suicide Prevention Center volunteer confessed to sheriff’s detectives that he slit the wrists of a chronic caller who had become too demanding, according to court testimony. Frank Charles Snyder, 29, admitted that he and an acquaintance had attacked a depressed and suicidal Benjamin Carlson on Feb. 12 because Carlson “was sucking everything out of me. . . . He antagonized me so that I would kill him,” Sgt. Joseph G. Dean testified. Municipal Judge Kenneth Peterson ordered Snyder bound over to Superior Court for trial on a charge of attempted murder. Snyder told investigators that when Carlson began calling the Suicide Prevention Center, “his goal was to try to help Mr. Carlson,” Dean testified. But Carlson’s calls became more demanding and Snyder tried to cut off their relationship, which also included in-person meetings, Dean said. “This guy, Ben, was in a vicious cycle,” Dean quoted Snyder as saying. “He wanted to die but didn’t have the courage to do it . . . I was angry with him. I was furious. It was ruining my life.”