Khodor Abbas. Photo: Facebook

DEARBORN— Khodor Abbas, the Dearborn 20-year-old man who died on Tuesday night, committed suicide, according to a police source. A community member familiar with the situation also confirmed that the young man killed himself. 

Abbas’ family had told The Arab American News that he died in a car accident on Ford Road in Dearborn.

The police source said Abbas was found in the basement of his Dearborn residence after hanging himself. Police were called to the scene while Abbas was still alive. He died at Oakwood Hospital an hour and a half later. 

Hussein Basma, the late man’s uncle, said his nephew had emigrated from Lebanon in January of 2014. He worked for a landscaping company.

Abbas’ parents and four siblings, two brothers and two sisters, live in Lebanon, Basma said.

“He was a nice guy, hard working and strong,” Basma said of his late nephew.

Abbas’s death is the sixth reported suicide in the Arab American community in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights within the past two years.

In May, an Arab American man killed his wife before taking his own life. The murder-suicide shocked the community. In July of 2014, a pregnant woman shot herself. Earlier in 2014, a 19-year-old woman and two men also committed suicide within six months of each other.

The families of Arab American victims of suicide usually try to deny the incidents because of the stigma about mental health in the community.