American national commits suicide at Entebbe Zoo

Sep 13, 2018

An employee at the facility who preferred not to be mentioned, said Lakin was seen at the zoo restaurant on Wednesday evening at around 4:00pm drinking several kinds of liquor before retiring back to his dormitory.

An ambulance taking Lakin's body to Mulago Hospital

James Lakin Crow, a 21 year old American citizen was  this morning found dead at one of the hostels  at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation and Education centre(UWEC) commonly known as Entebbe Zoo.

The deceased's body was reportedly found hanging on the railing of the  staircase  to the the dormitory where he had been residing since Monday as a volunteer Animal care-taker.

 The dormitory wher Lakin's body was found

The deceased allegedly used a belt to hang self. An  employee at the facility who preferred not to be mentioned, said Lakin was seen at the zoo restaurant on Wednesday evening at around 4:00pm drinking several kinds of liquor  before retiring back to his dormitory. 

Lakin according to UWEC managers first visited the reserve with his parents who returned to US on Sunday, leaving their son (now a deceased) in hands of a one Agnes Nalule as a caretaker.

Isaac Mujasi, the Public Relations Officer at UWEC, confirmed that the deceased had booked into the facility for eighteen days, but had so far slept for three days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He further explained that, since Nalule's home was in Munyonyo- Kampala, Lakin asked UWEC authorities to allow him sleep at the facility at a certain fee because it was more expensive for him to commute to and from Munyonyo everyday.  "Monday was his first night here. We’re shocked to find him hanging dead this morning," added Mujaasi.

The body was immediately rushed to Mulago Hospital for a  postmortem and a case file CRB 1086/2018 opened up as investigations into the matter continue.

Globally, according to WHO statistics, annually close to 800,000 people die as a result of suicide and this translates into one death every 40 seconds.

In 2014, the World Health Organisation ranked Uganda in position 17 on the  registered cases of suicide. This means 18.67 per 100,000 deaths are due to suicide in Uganda.

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