Flagstaff police officers found a 21-year-old Goodyear man dead in the parking lot of Flagstaff City Hall early Saturday morning, the apparent result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Officers had responded to the 200 block of West Aspen Avenue after a report of a person not breathing, and located Jimmy Wu at the scene, where he was pronounced dead.
According to the Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff police confirmed that officers responding to the call discovered Wu suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to his head in the municipal parking lot. The department has not released further details about what led up to the incident, and it remains unclear what brought Wu to Flagstaff from his home in Goodyear, a West Valley community in Maricopa County roughly 155 miles south of Flagstaff — a drive of about two and a half hours via Interstate 17, per Rome2Rio.
Second Young Phoenix-Area Visitor to Die in Flagstaff in a Week
Wu's death comes just five days after another 21-year-old Maricopa County resident, a Peoria man, was fatally struck by a train near San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff, as Hoodline previously reported. The two incidents are separate and there is no indication the deaths are connected, but they mark a grim stretch for downtown Flagstaff, which has now seen two young men from the Phoenix metro area die within days of each other.
Coconino County's Suicide Rates Far Outpace State and National Averages
The circumstances of Wu's death also arrive against a troubling backdrop of mental health data for the region. Coconino County recorded a suicide mortality rate of 32.1 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2022, notably higher than Arizona's statewide rate of 21.5 per 100,000 that year, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Among men specifically, the county's suicide rate reached 74.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2022 — more than double the statewide male rate of 36.7 per 100,000 — per the Arizona Violent Death Reporting System.
Firearms remain the leading method in completed suicides statewide, involved in more than 61% of cases, according to the Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition. A community health assessment released by Coconino County Health and Human Services in 2024 found the county's suicide rate ran roughly 80% higher than the national average, with officials pointing to lingering post-pandemic isolation and economic hardship as contributing factors, per KNAU. Federal data tracking 2019 through 2023 showed the county averaging 43 suicide deaths annually with an age-adjusted rate of 29.4 per 100,000, a trend the National Institutes of Health has characterized as rising over that five-year span.
Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which operates 24/7 across all 15 Arizona counties and can connect callers to local Crisis Mobile Teams or immediate psychiatric triage. Coconino County residents can also contact the region's dedicated behavioral health crisis line, operated by Arizona Complete Health under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, at 1-877-756-4090.
