New York executive's death highlights rise in suicide

Gustavo Arnal, the chief financial officer of US retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond, jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment in New York last week.

The company has been facing financial problems, and Arnal was named a defendant in a class-action lawsuit filed last month accusing him and other large shareholders of engaging in a "pump and dump "scheme to artificially inflate the price of the company's stock and then sell it for personal gains.

The New York Police Department said in a statement that the 52-year-old Arnal was found unconscious and unresponsive outside his luxury 57-story skyscraper in Manhattan. It has been reported that Arnal's wife witnessed him jump. No suicide note was found, nor is criminality.

Arnal's death occurred on Sept 2 at the beginning of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and two days before National Suicide Prevention Week.

The suicide rate in the United States has been climbing during the past two decades, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC data showed that nearly 46,000 people died by suicide in 2020. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for age groups 10-14 and 25-34, third for ages 15-24, and fourth for ages 35-44.

Suicide has become one of the top causes of death for adolescents and young adults. The suicide rate increased the most for the age group 10-14 at 9 percent.

Another study by Boston Children's Hospital showed a marked increase of adolescents seeking mental health help during the COVID-19 pandemic.