On Sunday I heard of a potential hostage situation at a funeral home in Las Vegas.  According to the Las Vegas Review it was not a hostage situation but a situation of a man threatening to shoot himself inside the Davis Funeral Home in Las Vegas.

Authorities were called to the funeral home, roads — and even some runways at the adjacent McCarren Airport — were closed, and it took some time for the police squads to get the man to surrender, only after he had shot himself and was injured.  In any regards, it made the news and was a story in Las Vegas.

Funeral Director Daily take:  We’ve talked on these pages many times about the changes in funeral service – cremations vs. earth burials – many times when discussing the business of the death care industry.

One thing we have not discussed – but I mention it many times to my friends – is the change in family dynamics over the past 35-40 years.  When I first started there was less divorce, and from my viewpoint, less dysfunction in families and it seemed like all wanted to work together to celebrate the life of someone they loved.

I tell my friends that one of the biggest changes in funeral service for me is that of family dynamics during the arrangement conference.  No longer does everyone in the room have the same desired outcomes.  Having ex-spouses, ex- in-laws, and others in the room just make things more difficult.

I know the people that own the Davis Funeral Home in Las Vegas and I feel for them.  We will find out what happened to make this man hole up at the funeral home, but whatever it was, it is not a positive public relations image that the Davis Funeral Home would want.  As hard as you work for positive public relations it is these type of seemingly random events that could negate all of that effort.

We’ve had situations at our funeral home where we know that the family – or ex-family – just don’t get along very good.  There are times we have taken precautions like asking non-uniformed police to attend the funeral just in case.  Now, we are from a small community so they usually understand why we are asking and are happy to help out to stop any trouble before it starts.

Anybody who owns a funeral home in today’s world has my respect.  Not only do you have to figure out how to be profitable in this environment but you also have to, seemingly, understand the social issues of your community to try to prevent situations like what happened in Las Vegas from happening.  I don’t think it would hurt to sit down with law enforcement and visit with them about the possibilities of family discord happening at a visitation or funeral service.  Having a plan might make a difference both in the solution and the public relations afterwards.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]