TIFFIN, OHIO | Eviction attempt results in suicide: What does this reveal about our systems?

TIFFIN, Ohio – Tiffin police say officers, with assistance from the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office, responded Thursday morning, Nov. 12, to a possible suicide in the 200 block of South Washington Street.

According to a Tiffin Police Department press release signed by Lt. J.A. DeMonte, the department’s administrative lieutenant, Tiffin-Fostoria Municipal Court personnel were attempting an eviction at an apartment in that block when the male resident “fired one round from a pistol.” Court personnel “did not see him and were unsure if the male shot himself or not,” the release said.

Tiffin police and the sheriff’s office responded. Police said it was known that the man “had previously shot at law enforcement in 2021.” In what the department called “an abundance of caution,” officers temporarily closed South Washington Street and evacuated nearby residences and businesses “until the scene could be made safe.”

Tiffin City Schools were asked to go on lockdown because of the proximity and the approaching lunch hour, the release said. Police said “at no time was there any direct threat to students.”

A drone was used to search the apartment, and the man “was found deceased from a single gunshot wound,” the department said. Police described the death as a possible suicide. The man’s identity is being withheld pending investigation and notification to next-of-kin, according to the release. Police have not released a motive or other information about his circumstances.

Evictions, crisis and public systems

Those missing details should not be filled in by guesswork, and this account does not assign fault to the court staff, officers or school officials who responded Thursday. National research, however, has found that evictions and the threat of eviction are associated with serious harm.

A 2024 study in Social Science & Medicine, by Nick Graetz, Carl Gershenson, Sonya R. Porter, Danielle H. Sandler, Emily Lemmerman and Matthew Desmond, linked millions of eviction court records to U.S. Census mortality data. An eviction filing, even without a judgment, was associated with a 19% increase in mortality, and an eviction judgment was associated with a 40% increase. A 2015 study in the American Journal of Public Health, led by Katherine A. Fowler of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, used the National Violent Death Reporting System and identified 929 suicides in 16 states from 2005 to 2010 with eviction or foreclosure circumstances. Most of those deaths occurred before the person lost the housing, and 37% involved an acute eviction or foreclosure crisis in the two weeks beforehand.

Those findings do not explain what happened in the 200 block of South Washington Street. They do show how housing court, law enforcement and mental health crises can intersect, and why communities keep crisis services in place alongside police response.

Ohioans who are in a mental health or suicide crisis, and their families, can call, text or chat 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, for free, confidential help 24 hours a day, the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health says. Local mental health and addiction services in Tiffin are planned and funded by the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Seneca, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wyandot Counties, which publishes crisis contacts on its website. Firelands Counseling and Recovery Services of Seneca County has an office at 76 Ashwood Road in Tiffin and can be reached at 419-448-9440.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Sources: Tiffin Police Department press release, Nov. 12, 2026, posted on the department’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1617851150376855&id=100064559564980. City of Tiffin: https://www.tiffinohio.gov. Graetz, Gershenson, Porter, Sandler, Lemmerman and Desmond, “The impacts of rent burden and eviction on mortality in the United States, 2000-2019,” Social Science & Medicine (2024): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10828546/, summarized by the Eviction Lab at https://evictionlab.org/rising-rents-and-evictions-linked-to-premature-death/. Fowler, Gladden, Vagi, Barnes and Frazier, “Increase in Suicides Associated With Home Eviction and Foreclosure During the US Housing Crisis,” American Journal of Public Health (2015): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4318323/. Ohio Department of Behavioral Health, 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in Ohio: https://dbh.ohio.gov/get-help/crisis-systems/988-suicide-and-crisis-lifeline-in-ohio. Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Seneca, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wyandot Counties: https://mhsosw.org/. Firelands Counseling and Recovery Services of Seneca County, Tiffin: https://www.firelands.com/medical-care/behavioral-health/treatment-locations/.

Image is an illustration, not a photograph of the incident.