Woman sought in officer’s death co-founded mental health group for police and other first responders

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A woman who started a group that advocates for the mental health of police officers was being sought by authorities Wednesday after a Massachusetts cop was found dead at the home they owned together.

Police began searching for Karen Solomon, who also wrote two books about the physical and psychological experiences of first responders, after Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon was found dead Tuesday. The two shared a home and had been married, court records indicated, but authorities declined to discuss their current relationship, citing domestic violence privacy rules.

The Worcester Police Department said Wednesday that Karen Solomon, 58, was believed to be armed. They released doorbell camera footage of her walking down a street in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops early Tuesday morning, just minutes after officers responded to a call from the home.

Police declined to identify the dead officer, but the local police union president, Thomas Duffy, said it was Kurt Solomon, a 31-year veteran of the department.

“When you serve 31 years with an individual, you become more than coworkers. You become family, and today we lost a member of our family,” Duffy told reporters on Tuesday. “Just a tremendous human being.”

Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Karen Solomon had been at the house early Tuesday and investigators wanted to talk to her about what happened. Police handed out flyers with her photo to drivers in the area Wednesday morning.

Local, state and federal agencies were involved in the search.

Records show the Solomons own the home and that Kurt Solomon named Karen Solomon as his wife in a 2016 bankruptcy case.

Karen Solomon is a co-founder of an organization called First H.E.L.P., the organization said in a statement Tuesday night.

The group “is dedicated to honoring the service of first responders who have died by suicide, supporting their families, reducing the stigma associated with seeking mental-health assistance, and increasing awareness of mental-health challenges within the law-enforcement and first-responder communities,” it said.

“Our first concern is for the officer who lost his life, his family, his colleagues, and the Worcester law-enforcement community,” the group said in its statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”

An author bio on Amazon said that since 2014 Karen Solomon “has been giving a voice to the thousands of officers in the field who can’t or won’t speak out.” Her books include “Hearts Beneath the Badge” and “The Price They Pay.”