A man armed with a knife threatening ‘suicide by cop’ was safely subdued after Lake County Sheriff’s deputies used a beanbag shotgun on him, officials said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office was called on Friday at 2:40 p.m. to a residence in the 38000 block of North Sheridan Road in Beach Park for a report of a suicidal person.
Authorities said that a man armed with a knife was threatening to harm himself and a family member. When police arrived they found the man barricaded in a bedroom.
“The deputies attempted to use verbal de-escalation techniques to gain the subject’s compliance into exiting the bedroom without success,” Lake County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Sara Balmes said. Police forced entry into the bedroom and found the man, who was highly agitated, holding a seven-inch knife to himself.
The man repeatedly told deputies to kill him and then made a motion to stab himself, Sgt. Balmes added. A deputy deployed a less-lethal beanbag shotgun at the subject’s hand that was holding the knife, causing him to drop it, officials said.
The man was transported to an area hospital with minor injuries and for a psychological evaluation.