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SF Hit & Run Rampage Suspect Attempts Suicide

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Dec 1, 2006 7:54 pm US/Pacific

SF Hit & Run Rampage Suspect Attempts Suicide

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― The East Bay man accused of killing one and injuring 18 others in a hit-and-run rampage in San Francisco tried to hang himself in a jail holding area but was foiled by sheriff's deputies, authorities said.

Omeed Aziz Popal, 29, of Fremont, attempted suicide a week after a San Francisco judge found he was competent to be tried for attempted murder in the Aug. 29 rampage.

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Popal tried to hang himself with his jail-issued sweatshirt attached to a pipe and looped around his neck. It happened about 1 p.m. Thursday while Popal was awaiting transfer to County Jail No. 2 at the Hall of Justice, said Eileen Hirst of the Sheriff's Department.

"Deputies heard a suspicious noise and went immediately to where he was," Hirst said. Popal was standing on a chair and "was trying to kick the chair out from underneath himself when deputies hurried in to the cell."

"(Popal) never succeeded in kicking the chair out from under him," she said.

Popal was sent to San Francisco General Hospital for evaluation and remained there under suicide watch on Friday, Hirst said. He had been housed in the psychiatric ward there following his August arrest until recently, when he was moved to the county jail.

Popal's family and his lawyer claim he is mentally ill, but the court-appointed doctor who reported on him last week said his condition had improved after his medication was changed.

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)

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