[citation needed] The idea of dying by suicide in this manner is based on trained procedures of law enforcement officers, specifically the policy on the use of deadly force.
Many variants exist: for example, attacking with a knife or other hand weapon, trying to run an officer or other person over with a car, or trying to trigger a real or presumed explosive device.
Many law enforcement training programs have added sections to specifically address handling these situations if officers suspect that the subject is attempting to goad them into using lethal force.
[citation needed] Many modern cases that pre-date the formal recognition of the phenomenon have been identified or speculated by historians as matching the pattern now known as suicide by cop.
"[5] The 1976 death of Mal Evans, road manager, assistant, and a friend of the Beatles, who aimed an air gun at police and refused to put it down, was theorized as a possible example of this phenomenon.
Police defined victim-precipitated homicide as "an incident in which an individual bent on self-destruction, engages in life threatening and criminal behavior to force law enforcement officers to kill them.
"[11] The first formally labeled "Suicide by Cop" case in English legal history was a judgment made on May 9, 2003, by the Reverend Dr. William Dolman[10] while serving as a London coroner between 1993 and 2007.