A 35-year-old man was taken into protective custody at the Copps Food Center Oct. 2 by police after a report that a man was feeling suicidal. Officers arrived on scene to find a man holding an open can of gas, a lighter and smoking a cigarette. The man told the officers he was going to light himself on fire.
“Officers began to dialogue with the male in an attempt to get him to put down the gas can and the lighter,” Sergeant Galen Wiering wrote in an incident report.
Officers were standing by with fire extinguishers and the firefighters were staged nearby. Other officers continued to negotiate with the man for approximately 30 minutes, but were unable to convince him to put down the gas can.
After the unsuccessful negotiation, the man raised the gas can, appearing to try to pour the gasoline on himself. “Seeing that the situation was about to get a lot worse, a sergeant on scene rushed the male and tackled him to the ground,” Wiering wrote.
Other on-scene officers quickly assisted in taking the man into protective custody, most likely saving his life.
