By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A troubled teen performing at an open mic night in an Oregon club stabbed himself to death in front of a cheering audience who thought it was an act.
The Daily Mail is reporting that 19 year-old Kipp Rusty Walker committed suicide on stage at the Strictly Organic Coffee Company last week. Eye witnesses said he played a song entitled, Sorry for All the Mess, then took out a six-inch knife and began plunging it into his chest.
The audience clapped and cheered, thinking it was just theater, but when Walker collapsed into a pool of blood, their reaction changed to horror as many began screaming and rushing to his aid. Walker was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died of his wounds.
“It was really unclear at first what was even happening,” said Rhonda Ealy, co-owner of Strictly Organic, to KTVZ. “You know it is an open mic and it’s a performance, people at first thought it was some sort of theatre. Most people never have to see anything like that in their entire lives, and never have before, so it is a life-changing experience.”
Walker, who is described as a transient, threatened to kill himself on March 20 and was taken to the psychiatric unit at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, but was released a few days later.
A friend who did not wish to be identified told Oregon’s NewsChannel 21 that Walker’s death was no surprise.
“I’ve been preparing for it for a while, I’m sad about it, but I think I’m in shock, it’s like a whirlwind of emotions,” the friend said. “It was almost like he wanted to prove a point, like there’s no point in being scared of death because it’s going to happen to us anyway.”
The friend added that there was nothing he could do to help Walker. “I actually told him, ‘Dude, this is going to mess a lot of people up’,” the friend said.
People commenting on the bizarre incident range from those who bemoan the secularism that steals the meaning from life to anger that the audience had to witness such a horrifying scene.
“It is always a tragic act for someone to take their own life since all life is precious,” said one person who commented on the story as it appeared on the OregonLive.com website. “Nonetheless, he did not have the right to do this in front of an audience. The horrific memories of someone stabbing himself to death on stage in front of them is not something for anyone to have to be subject to, or have to live with. It is psychologically damaging for everyone in the audience whether they admit it or not. I feel more sympathy for the audience than the ‘performer’.”
Another speculated that Walker may have come to this point in life because he believed life is meaningless. “The secular world view is one of the most hopeless, this poor young man seemed to share in it. Simplified the secular view is this: We are nothing more than an accident of evolution. We are slaves to evolution including all of our thoughts, desires, and feelings. They are nothing more than a mental construct born of evolution to increase our survival. Die now or later it does not matter.”
The commenter went on to say that he found his hope in the God of the Bible who “sent His Son so that we may have true life and true hope.”
Counseling has been made available to everyone who witnessed the event.
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