Jonathan D. Miller was running for the North Carolina state Senate until he ran into the woods on Monday with a revolver and his phone, posting updates to X like this one: "I've got six shots and the high ground. I hope they don't find me, but if they do it's going to be a hell of a show."
Miller's official timeline wasn't unusual — at least not at first — for a Libertarian political candidate. There was talk about campaigning at the state fair, and boasting on Friday that "The only government list I'm not on is Donald Trump's candidate endorsements."
But his small account went viral Sunday and early Monday, as Miller expressed suicidal thoughts (which X since deleted) in detailed conversations with multiple other X users.
"I spent all night last night with a gun cocked trying to get myself to pull the trigger," Miller replied to a since-deleted post. "I didn't lie about anything. I haven't gone through with it yet because it's a lot f***ing harder than it looks. I didn't lie about anything then now or ever."
Users overwhelmingly encouraged Miller to get help and/or find God — and, of course, at some point someone alerted the local Cary, N.C. police.
Early Monday, he posted: "I'm alive. The police chased me into the woods. I think I lost them."
"Someone called the police and told them I was suicidal and when they showed up I ran from them," Miller updated followers a couple hours later. "The whole police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be fun," he added.
"I had a pretty good head start and was already ducking behind this old brick wall I found in the woods before I started tweeting about it. Figured it was a good place for a standoff but then I got tired of waiting so now I'm circling around to try to come up on them from behind."
Whether he meant to or not, that implied a threat the police must have taken seriously.
"Stop what you are doing and announce where you are and drop the gun," former Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver pleaded. "Please stop. Folks want you to live."
Still on the run, Miller eventually called local TV news station WRAL and kept them updated on his situation and emotional troubles. “If I go to the hospital, I'll spend approximately 15 to 30 seconds every day with a doctor, and that'll be my time to talk it out,” Miller told the station. “He'll write me a [prescription] for a drug that doesn't help, and in a few days I'll be right back where I'm at now.”
He might be a little crazy at the moment, but he also might not be wrong about that.
More from his talks with WRAL:
“I spent all night crying, and angry, and upset, and depressed, and all the emotions. And this morning I was tired, but I had things I needed to do. And I didn't kill myself."
“So I got up and made coffee,” Miller continued, “and I had two sips of coffee, and I went outside to have a cigarette, and while I was having a cigarette, a police officer approached me, knew my name, saw that I had a holstered revolver on my hip, so he drew his weapon and told me to keep my hands away from mine. I told him I was going to refuse that order, and I backed away slowly until I was far enough away from him to turn and run, and then I turned and ran into the woods.”
Miller eventually made it back to his apartment complex, resulting in an hours-long standoff that ended peacefully.
"He was in a dark place,” Cary police chief Terry Sult said at a Monday press conference after the ordeal was over. “Felt like he was on his last leg."
Let's hope he gets the help he needs. For real.
Recommended: IT'S OFFICIAL: Good Guys With Guns Save a Whole Lotta Lives