Newly elected Bakersfield Councilman Jeff Tkac has apparently taken his own life.Police responded to Tkac’s home in the Haggin Oaks area of south Bakersfield at 11:30 AM Thursday to find him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The gun was nearby.

He had just sat on his first City Council meeting the night before and the suicide comes as a stunner to those in city government. Tkac was 53 and leaves a wife and three sons. He also owned an irrigation business.

Sean Michael Lisle