Submitted Charles T. White

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Charles Timothy White was a brilliant man and generous of his time and money, but was wracked by a mental illness that led to his death, a neighbor and friend said Friday.

Kathy Foster - who lives on Nutwood Street across from where White, 45, barricaded himself inside his residence during a two-day police standoff and was found dead Thursday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound - tried to encourage White to seek help for his illness, which had been marked by mood swings and talk of suicide.

“He always said I was his best friend,” said Foster, who knew White as “Tim.” “I saw him the night before (the standoff) happened. He seemed unwell, upset, agitated. I told him to let me take him to the hospital, but he said, ‘I’ll be fine.’ ”

Foster, who talked with White virtually every day, was one of several people who gathered outside White’s home Wednesday during the initial hours of the standoff and tried to persuade White to communicate with her or leave the house.

The Bowling Green Police Department responded to the home at 7:37 a.m. Wednesday after White’s mother, Sue White, called authorities and reported that her son had threatened to kill her and himself and had pushed her before she left the house, which contained multiple firearms.

White emerged briefly at 11:49 a.m. Wednesday, showing up at the front door and yelling at police before retreating back inside and closing the door.

That was the last contact anyone had with him.

“I was frantic for him,” Foster said. “When he stepped out, he was so shocked and when he slammed that door, I turned to one of the detectives and said, ‘You’re giving him too much time. He needs to be talked down, he needs to vent.’ ”

After several hours passed without any contact from White, Foster feared the worst. Police found his body at 5:05 p.m. Thursday.

BGPD Chief Doug Hawkins said that the response of his department, along with the assistance of the Owensboro Police Department and Kentucky State Police, demonstrated excellent cooperation among the agencies in an effort to protect the public and attempt to bring the incident to a peaceful resolution.

“Mr. White’s ultimate fate was in his own hands,” Hawkins said. “We didn’t, nor were ever interested in, escalating the incident. Time was on our side, so we were willing to wait to see what Mr. White could do. He had the ability to control his own destiny.”

Foster said that White struggled with his illness, but was a very bright man who quickly made friends with the Foster family after they moved into their Nutwood Street home.

Foster said they had several common interests, including boating, dirt bikes and muscle cars.

White was especially proud of his GTO, which he was in the process of restoring, and Foster said he had designed blueprints and diagrams for an airplane that he planned to build.

“My three sons adored him, they would ride dirt bikes and four-wheelers with him,” Foster said. “Tim never would have harmed me or anyone in my family. I was never frightened of him.”

A U.S. Navy veteran, White was a boat captain for Florida Marine Transporters, a Louisiana tank barge company that carries liquid cargo on inland American waterways.

Foster said that his work took him away from home 32 to 34 days at a time, and when he was home, he was there usually two weeks at a time.

White would often call Foster from different locales where he had docked his boat, she said, but he worried that the medication he was taking for his mental illness would impair his ability to operate the boat and felt “cornered” by the dilemma, refusing medical treatment for fear that his employer would find out and terminate him.

A message was left Friday with Florida Marine Transporters.

Foster described White as a lover of children and animals who kept a pet ferret named Oscar and enjoyed her sons’ pet cat.

He also donated several thousand dollars over his life to various charities, Foster said.

“He never met a stranger. He was a man of honor and dignity,” Foster said. “If he ever saw anyone down, he’d try to give them money ... he gave just as much as he kept.”

A man who answered the phone at Sue White’s residence Friday afternoon said the family had no comment.

While going with the Foster family to a restaurant for dinner on Monday, White appeared to be in good spirits, even drawing pictures for a waitress, Foster said. However, the preceding months had been marked by a “despair” over his illness, and Foster felt helpless over being unable to persuade White to seek treatment for it.

“I don’t believe in ostracizing a person over a mental illness that they did not ask to have,” Foster said. “The worst thing is I live across the street, and I see his beloved GTO sitting outside his mother’s house and it hurts me. I keep waiting for him to walk out that door.

“He knows my family loved him and I’m so glad of that. If love could have saved him, he would have been saved.”