suicide

Why would you commit suicide in a bookshop ?
Not that I think about these things a lot, but even if I did, I don’t think it would ever enter my brain to kill myself in a bookshop.
But some people have other ideas, clearly. A couple of days ago, a customer jumped of the top floor of one of the nearby branches of the bookshop I work for. The staircase was several floors high, and he fell through the middle to land on the ground in the basement. He didn’t even die immediately, but only later in hospital. A horrible, horrible way to go. Also a nightmare for the shop employees, who had to get all the other customers out of the place, while trying not to have too many see the body.
When the boss told us in a meeting, I was quite surprised: it would just never occur to me to link suicide and bookshops. But my collegues who have worked for the company a while were all totally blasé….it seems this actually happens quite a lot! This was about the 6th suicide at that particular branch! Mainly it has been customers who have jumped of the staircase, but the last one was actually an employee, apparently after a fight.
I cant imagine what could depress a person so much that they would feel they had no alternative but to commit such a drastic and final act.