Who was the SPP officer who shot himself to death downtown Bucharest?

The SPP officer who killed himself in a central area of Bucharest on Wednesday was married, had one child and has allegedly suffered of depression, although he had successfully passed the psychological test that all officers take.

39-year-old Lucian Sanda was born in Ramnicu Valcea and was a lieutenant colonel within the Protection and Guard Service (SPP), with seniority in the defense system of about 20 years. He was married and had a nine-year-old child.

First information revealed that on Wednesday the man would have got out of his car, took his gun and shot himself twice in the chest right in the middle of the street in the Tineretului area. A second car stopped near his car and the passengers intervened to give him the first aid. He was rushed to the Bagdasar Arseni Hospital, but unfortunately doctors could not save him anymore, as the wounds were fatal.

On the moment of the incident, the officer was apparently in the middle of a phone talk. The man used a Glock pistol, which was his personal gun and he had the right to own it.

Sources from the defense system told Mediafax that the man would have killed himself due to some personal problems, mixed with other problems he was facing at work. The same sources said that Lucian Sanda would have been registered in some medical records as suffering from a certain type of depression.

However, other sources said that the officer had no problems at work and was not suffering of any depression. Moreover, six months ago, the officer would have successfully passed the psychological test within SPP.

The sources also claim that Sanda has never activated as operative officer.

He was a Ph.D. student in social sciences at the Social Sciences and Social Assistance Faculty in Bucharest. His Ph.D. thesis was drafted in 2010, was entitled “The international dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and was coordinated by Virgil Magureanu, former director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI).

As the victim was military, the investigation in this case was taken over by the Military Prosecutor’s Office, with the evidence review to last around 30 days.