Sir'mone McCaulla Dead: Post Office Stab Suspect Likely Committed Suicide

NEW YORK (AP) -- A man suspected of killing someone he bumped into on a sidewalk outside New York City's main post office has been found dead in Philadelphia, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

The man was found in the bathroom of an ex-girlfriend's apartment; the death is being investigated as a possible suicide, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The normally bustling James A. Farley Post Office is across the street from Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station, and just blocks from the Empire State Building.

The security video showed the pedestrians walking toward each other and bumping shoulders on Sunday. Each kept walking for a moment, but then they turned, exchanged words and moved toward each other.

The victim, 20-year-old Christopher Gutierrez of Manhattan, assumed a fight-like stance, and the suspect made a jabbing motion. Then the dying victim slumped to the post office steps. The suspect walked away.

A German tourist also photographed the suspect, who was identified Tuesday by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly as Sirmone McCaulla, 28. Authorities gave little background about him except to say he had served in the Army.

Philadelphia officials notified police in New York on Tuesday night that the suspect had been found dead.

*****

Before his death, McCaulla emailed the following suicide note to his mother and posted it on MySpace:

I'm just going to vent to corrections to spell checks no nothing just gonna type first off I just wanna say sorry to my daughter that's heart and my love forever and I will be watching over you next to my mother and sister babygirl please take care of my baby for me I tried my best to be the best father I can be but it still seemed to go wrong I couldn't even win at losing it seem to the rest of my friends and family please don't have this change your out look on me its just breaking me up that they making me seem like a monster which I'm far from I never was charged with anything dispite that the making it seem like I got out and started to turn to crime yes I was never arrested for burglary or robbery but the meaning the media and police needs to paint a picture that I was a serious criminal when I was in the process to be a corrections officer for the city of new york but they will not not that some is wondering why my mind state was the way it was but I gotten jumped by several white guys when I was a teen but I don't think the media or police is gonna bring that up also as almost got stabbed to death meeting a friend after school on 59th st but that wont be mention nether because the need to make the public feel safe I was robbed at gun point blocks away from my house down the block from the police station and while coming home from a job interview I was on 51st st sitting on the steps waiting for the train reading a book when I was randomly attacked and the police at first tried to arrest me cause they couldn't believe that I was reading a book when it happen cause I guess I don't look like the reading type but then someone brought some of my things and the book that they swore I wasn't reading to the police station down the block so my mind state is when someone is tryin to hurt me I get defensive now sortta like its them or me I had lucky breaks b4 with death and attacks no one is pushing the issue that he came back towards me and took off his jacket and put his hands up but the paper and his family sayin this man was a saint he provoked me I wasn't gonna keep walking when this man is taken his stuff off I know the people that are not in my shoes say I'm a fool for not walking off but I could of walked but the story could of played out different where man walked off after bump but was attacked or killed etc etc I just got off the bus from new jersey didn't have a worry was just tryin to make it home to see my daughter walking south on 8th me and this man bumped into each on the sidewalk not the steps or any other place they tried to claim it was it happen on the sidewalk I turned around cause we bumped into each other he started talking like watch where you goin and we could fight I'm standing there cause I'm not gonna turn my back on him and hes already talking in a volence tone of voice and took off his jacket that's when my I started to get defensive I told the man keep it moving no problems but if u leap I'm gonna fuck you up not gonna lie didn't mean to kill him just wanted to stop the threat you don't come back towards a person u just bumped talking and taken your stuff off putting your hands up but nuff of him starting to think it's a waste of time to express myself any more I just hope the police release the footage so the people can see what really happen bout now after this yall will have a reason to say I had some problems cause this is the way I'm goin out rather go out in the hands of myself than another man sad to say but that's how I feel if its hard for me for me to find work out of the army its gonna be 10 times harder if I come out as a felon I hope this shows that the system is not built to fix a person to those that supported me I lived my life now it time for me to go Love Sir'mone

Ps Sweetie I Love You Live For Daddy Cause I Can See Now Your Stronger Than you ever I ever would be

Comments

[408th HR CO]

02:13 PM on 10/20/2009

i knew spc. mccaulla, he isnt deranged in anyway in fact he was actually similar to your average dude except funnier from my brief time around him i just remember him crackin jokes and doing his military duty the best way he could..so cut the mainstream nonsense with the average, "crazy war vet bulls***" that man was a victim of his own mind which was applied furthermore by the circumstances he went through. R.I.P Mccaulla, though i would never condone suicide i wish u could have just stood through this, the Lord always makes a way so those who read this and are still among the living, Praise God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and live upright and you be patient

[NYCMami]

10:39 PM on 10/05/2009

RIP

[Ventoi]

06:59 PM on 10/01/2009

Did you ever read the words of one person and see another...

not always ripped from the headlines...
sometimes made to fit the rip

ER

[2INFORM]

06:17 PM on 10/01/2009

As you read Sirmone's ltr is obvious he was in his own hell. From his letter on numerous occasions he had been victimized and was unable to find help coupled with his issues from the military and trying to achieve his goal of becoming an correctional officer he was trapped within his hell. Maybe this is indicative of the plight the some of what men go through who find it difficult to seek to help. I am glad he wrote his story because without it we (the mass public) would chalked his behavior up to being the actions of a deranged/angry man, who we should be glad he killed himself. Instead, if we really read his story, we would hear the story of a man trying unsuccessfully to attain the same things we all want to be a contributing part of society. We need to pay attention to what really goes in the military and how it affects our military personnel because we (society) are now being affected by whatever has affected them. PTSD (post-traumatic-stress-disorder) is serious. The other posters are correct, a simple sorry should have sufficed. I am sorry for the loss of both these of men and for our society that we have become afraid of each other to the point that we don't even look at each other directly in the face when have something to say (if, we do dare speak).

[Matt Sewell]

01:35 PM on 10/01/2009

While I sympathize with Sirmone because of previous assaults committed against him I fail to see how that is germane in this instance. He was walking around midtown in the middle of the day with a knife at the ready. Who does that? Yes, he may have had mental issues or PTSD and that illustrates how returning soldiers lack some of the care they need. However, a soldier should have discipline not to stab a random pedestrian over an accidental bump whether or not he was the aggressor. A similar thing happened to me walking down 9th Ave in Hell's Kitchen but it was a middle aged woman. She wanted to fight me and I could have kicked her ass but instead turned around and laughed her off.

[silvatopp]

11:27 AM on 10/01/2009

when members of the armed forces return from serving their country and the country seems to trun it's back on that soldier it is very difficult to handle; maybe Sir'mone was trying to deal with that neglect, if you will, and his mind was not handling it well. People who serve are so dedicated to that service that it consumes their whole life, and to be pushed aside feels like your parents casting you aside. The hurt and betrayal is very profound. He was probably suffering from Post traumatic stress disorder.

[2INFORM]

06:19 PM on 10/01/2009

I agree with you. He needed help and for whatever reason, he didn't receive it. He should have had a mental health screening with the VA.

[silvatopp]

11:10 AM on 10/01/2009

mere words cannot express the pain that both families are not experiencing, all because of bad attitudes. Where is the love for each other, a simple "excuse me I'm sorry" may have healed their wounded egoes. On the other hand who is to say, when one is in mental pain it only takes a simple act to push one over the edge. I wish we could turn back the clock.

[Evie156]

03:00 AM on 10/01/2009

Now that I read this mans entire letter, I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for the man he stabbed to death, and both their families. If I bumped into someone and they turned around and started to take their jacket off to beat me up, I would start screaming and try to run away. But I am a woman, over 50 years old. I think neither one of those men were angels, but they were not devils either. Maybe the man who who was leaving work had a bad day, and just snapped, and ended up the victim. But Sir'mone is also a victim, which you can see if you read his entire letter. It's all so sad.

[Gayle Garcia]

09:43 PM on 09/30/2009

He seemed to still have been traumitized by the prior violence he encountered. Paranoid Anxiety perhaps. Whatever the case, two young men are dead. Two children are left fatherless. Two mothers left to mourn their sons. Very, very sad no matter how you look at it.

[LLNYRN]

07:14 PM on 09/30/2009

It just goes to show you how on edge many people are these days.

I do feel that McCaulla was being portrayed in the media as this ultimate monster, whereas Gutierrez was portrayed as the hopeless victim. I think both men got on a macho trip after the bump. And tempers flared even higher. It's just that one of them ended up being stabbed. Whether it was self-defense or cruel indifference, we'll never know.

[Evie156]

03:10 AM on 10/01/2009

As his letter says, I hope the police will release the security tape to the media so we can see what Sir'mone described in his letter, and so at least in some part, his family will have some solace in the fact that his name can be cleared in some way, because from what he describes, he was just as much of a victim, but the only thing is, he "won" the street fight, though according to his letter, he was not the one who started it.

[RobinsonRoad]

08:44 AM on 10/01/2009

RIP Mr. McCaulla.

[silvatopp]

10:48 AM on 10/01/2009

some people have an ego that's larger than life, and they will not turn tail and run from a fight or confrontation. But sometimes one have to run away, forget about your stupid ego.

[Tlon]

04:34 PM on 09/30/2009

If you take the time to read the man's suicide letter you will see how sad this whole incident is--on both sides.

[AlexNYC]

10:37 AM on 09/30/2009

All this from an "accidental" bumping on a sidewalk? The suspect was obviously deranged.

[Evie156]

03:08 AM on 10/01/2009

AlexNYC, I disagree with you. From reading his entire letter, I do not think Sir'mone was "deranged." I was born, bred, and still live here in the Village in Manhattan, and if I was a man, and someone bumped into me, and if I turned around and barked "Watch where you're going" and then started to take my jacket off and threatened to beat the man up, I would not be surprised if I either got my butt kicked, or ended up dead. When you grow up on a tiny island like Manhattan, where there are too many people living too closely, you cannot act like that. I read a sociological study that showed NYC is unique to all other cities in that we have too many people living in too little space, and the study showed that it is amazing that we don't all kill eachother. This study was done about 15 years ago, when the city was not even as packed as it is now! And what makes it even WORSE and MORE stressful now, is that most of the people who are here packing the streets did not grow up here, and have no idea how to walk or act in a crowd! And this man, Sir'mone was in the war. And according to his letter, he had past incidents of being attacked by strangers. I feel sorry for both of them, and for their loved ones.

[AlexNYC]

10:27 AM on 10/01/2009

BY the way the letter by Sirmone was added by Huffpost after I posted my comment. It now seems to me that both are to blame. Only by being a witness or seeing a video tape of the incident can one surmise whether the bumping was an accident or if one of them did it on purpose. Taking off one's jacket and getting into a fight stance or stabbing the other guy to "end the threat" are both extreme responses to a non life threatening situation. I've had big guys who pass me by bump me hard ON PURPOSE, but I instinctly knew it was the wrong thing for me to stop and confront them because they were probably violent and looking for someone to take down. I kept walking. They both stopped spoiling for a fight, and they both lost.

[silvatopp]

11:01 AM on 10/01/2009

growing up in the city has nothing to do with the attitudes of the people of today, they simply hate each other, period. If you so much as look at certain people too much they are ready to jump on you and start a fight. The adults as well as the children act in the same manner. God Bless our country!!!!

[tlgeiger62]

08:41 AM on 09/30/2009

Wow. What a horrible way to do it; and in his girlfriends apartment. Condolenses to the family and the girlfriend.