On the morning of February 8, 2011, a month before his 66th birthday, Reyes, together with two of his sons and a bodyguard, visited his mother's grave at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. He asked his children and bodyguard to go ahead and wait for him in the car, before shooting himself in the chest near the heart. He was rushed to Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, but was declared dead on arrival and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. The cause of his suicide ranges from pressure from the media and the senators taking the questions to a personal level and his connection to the Arroyo administration, with one senator calling him "gutless coward".