An aspiring Hollywood actor facing sexual assault allegations put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger while broadcasting on Facebook Live early Monday morning.
Frederick Jay Bowdy, 33, went on Facebook at around 5.30am and announced to his followers that he was going to end his life.
A family member from out of state saw Bowdy's livestream and called the Los Angeles Police asking them to perform a welfare check.
Officers were sent out to track down Bowdy, but by the time they found him sitting in a car near Crumpston Street and Fulcher Avenue, he had already killed himself, reported Los Angeles Times.
The New York Daily News reported Wednesday that Bowdy shot himself in the head and was pronounced dead at around 6.30am.
As news of Bowdy's grisly death spread, his friends took to social media expressing shock and dismay at the tragic incident, among them a few who watched the 33-year-old up-and-coming actor end his life.
Facebook user Meco Harden described in graphic detail Jay Bowdy's final moments.
'His voice. His pain. His tears. Everything he said. Thr [sic] sound of him pulling that trigger and hearing his blood pouring messed me up!' he wrote in a comment. 'I will NEVER forget that sound. Shook me to my core.'
The video of Bowdy’s suicide has since been deleted from Facebook Live.
A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Mail Wednesday evening the company was saddened by this tragedy, referring to Jay Bowdy's suicide.
'We take our responsibility to keep people safe on Facebook very seriously and work with organizations around the world to provide assistance for people in distress,' the statement reads. 'Our Community Standards regulate what kinds of content can be shared on Facebook.
'Our teams work around the clock to review content that is being reported by users and we have systems in place to ensure that time sensitive content is dealt with quickly.'
The emailed statement goes on to say that the vast majority of people are using Facebook Live 'to come together and share experiences in the moment with their friends and family.
'But if someone does violate our Community Standards while using Live, we want to interrupt these streams as quickly as possible when they're reported to us.
'So we've given people a way to report violations during a live broadcast. We also suggest people contact law enforcement or emergency services themselves if they become aware of something where the authorities can help.'
Bowdy took his own life four days after the Texas native was arrested in Santa Clarita on suspicion of sexual assault. No formal charges were filed against him, and he was released from jail on Friday after posting $100,000 bail.
A day before the budding actor livestreamed his suicide on Facebook, 14-year-old Nakia Venant, of Miami, broadcast her self-inflicted death-by-hanging online.
Three weeks earlier, another girl, 12-year-old Katelyn Nicole Davis, also live-streamed her suicide from the backyard of her home in Georgia.
Frederick Bowdy, who went by his middle name, Jay, was a married father-of-six who had only recently moved to Hollywood from Fort Worth, Texas, to pursue a career in film.
He also had a side job performing as a stripper under the stage name ‘Houston’ at The Hollywood Men dance revue.
His IMDB page lists nine acting credits between 2014 and 2017. Last year, Bowdy starred in the drama Prepper, which follows a high school teacher who becomes a doomsday prepper.
At the time of his death, Bowdy was filming a sports drama titled Going Vertical, which stars John Savage and Russian A-lister Vladimir Mashkov.
Bowdy had a bachelor's degree from the University of West Georgia and a Master's degree in education from University of Texas at Arlington.
Before making the move to California, he had worked as a teacher and coach, and owned a semi-professional basketball team.
Meanwhile, a friend of Whitney Bowdy, Jay's wife, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to provide financial aid to the grieving widow and their six children.
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