Police say a high school track star tweeted about suicide moments before allegedly shooting himself Tuesday morning.
The person is identified as 18-year-old senior Marcus Wheeler of Tempe, Arizona. A resource officer at Corona del Sol High School reportedly tried to “talk him down,” but to no avail.
Moments before Wheeler took his life, he tweeted:
There is going to be a suicide in the school right now
Watch a full report on Marcus Wheeler’s death below:
The high school senior also sent an earlier tweet about not having “motivation to do anything.”
Other tweets within 24 hours of his death were collected below:
i want my life 3 months ago back” and “help.”
when a girl asks to be just friends its basically telling you to f*** off.
life has fallen apart in front of my own eyes and its all my fault.
Flotrack.org reports Wheeler was among the state’s best long distance runners:
Wheeler was considered one of the best distance runners from the state of Arizona after claiming his very first high school state title with a 15:36 victory in the Division 1 state cross country race.
Nikki Kontz of Teen Hotline told KPHO-TV that many people do not know that behavior like this on social media can be reported so that people can try to help their friends online.
“All anyone has to do is search under the Help menu for ‘suicide’ and there will become a list of instructions on how you alert Twitter that you are worried about someone,” Kontz said.
The number for Teen Hotline is 602-248-TEEN (8336).