As an undercover Seattle police detective, Bryan Van Brunt was unbelievably good at living the made-up lives of the criminal characters he inhabited: an Aryan biker and gunrunner, a drug dealer, an underground gambler and criminal fixer.
What he struggled with was living his own life, once the disguises were gone.
Van Brunt took his own life on Sept. 13, 2019, leaving behind a shattered family and stunned friends and colleagues, all of whom considered his death to be job-related — that he died in the line of duty, no different from if he had been shot down in the street. The stress and trauma of years working undercover, juggling lies that could cost his life, had taken their toll on the 41-year-old father of two…