Three Lake County Sheriff’s deputies are being recognized after they helped save a 19-year-old armed with a pistol trying to commit suicide by cop.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded at 10:20 a.m. on Wednesday to a residence in the 23100 block of West Lake Shore Drive in unincorporated Antioch for a call of an unwanted person. When sheriff’s deputies arrived they began talking with the caller, a 19-year-old man, who lives in the residence.
While speaking to the responding deputy, the 19-year-old man pulled a handgun and threatened to kill himself, officials said.
“The man made several comments saying he was going to exit his room with the pistol, to force sheriff’s deputies to shoot him,” Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Christopher Covelli said.
The first responding deputy, Eric Campbell, began “crisis intervention communications” with the man. Deputy John Willer and Sergeant George Love also arrived at the scene and helped Deputy Campbell to de-escalate the situation. All three deputies are trained in crisis intervention.
After around an hour, the man surrendered peacefully, sheriff’s officials said. The man was transported to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation. A loaded pistol and a shotgun were recovered from the residence, police said.
“This was a situation which could have ended tragically. Due to our fast thinking deputies and their utilization of crisis intervention skills, they were able to convince this man to surrender peacefully. I’m very proud of all our personnel involved in this tense incident. This is another example of the importance of Crisis Intervention Team training for first-responders,” Sheriff Mark Curran said.