Retired SF Asst. Police Chief Dies of Apparent Suicide at Sheriff's Substation in Boyes Hot Springs

A Sonoma Valley resident and former San Francisco assistant police chief apparently committed suicide Wednesday evening outside the Sonoma County sheriff's substation in Boyes Hot Springs, a sheriff's lieutenant said this morning.

The sheriff's office was notified at 7:45 p.m. of a despondent and potentially suicidal person who had left his home in a green Dodge Durango, Lt. Bret Sackett said.

Deputies from the sheriff's Sonoma Valley substation in Boyes Hot Springs began an immediate search for the SUV and found it at 8:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the substation, located at 810 Grove St., Sackett said.

Deputies found Morris Tabak, 59, of Sonoma Valley, dead of an apparent gunshot wound, Sackett said.

An autopsy is scheduled for today. Tabak retired from the San Francisco Police Department in September 2010.

Tabak was the subject of a Bay Citizen story that appeared in the New York Times about high-paid public workers who live outside of the areas they work. The story, noting that Tabak made $425,558 in 2009 and was to receive an annual pension of approximately $225,000 based on his 32 years with the San Francisco Police Department, focused on how other municipalities receive the economic benefits of public worker salaries.

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