Police: Woman Used Toxic Chemicals To Kill Herself, Five Officers Injured During Attempted Rescue

A potential case of chemical suicide has taken the life of a Newburgh woman and injured five police officers in the process, says the Times Herald record. Newburgh Police Chief Michael Clancy said his department got a welfare check call late Sunday morning. Clancy says the woman had threatened to harm herself.

The Times Herald record says that two officers arrived at the address and spoke with people at the house, but they could not initially locate the woman. A few minutes later the officers spotted a woman in a car parked in the driveway. The officers opened the car door and were immediately overcome by noxious fumes. As other officers arrived, the woman was pulled from the car. The Times Herald Record says the officers attempted to revive her before turning her over to an ambulance crew who took her to the Newburgh campus of St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

Clancy said a preliminary investigation indicated the woman apparently mixed at least two substances in the confined space of the car, creating a deadly poisonous gas. The Goodwill Fire Department responded to the scene, along with a hazardous materials team from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Five town police officers were treated at the hospital for illnesses and symptoms related to the inhalation of poisonous fumes. They were kept at the hospital through the night and were released by mid-morning on Monday.