Is calling the police always the best strategy for dealing with a suicidal person?

[astro]

You might want to think twice about the advisability of doing that after reading this story. (via Fark)

Mom: 9-1-1 call was to help son

The question stands however. If someone is drunk and threatening to do harm to themselves with a weapon, is calling the police going to be more dangerous to the violent drunk person than their own drunken threats to harm themselves?

Hope Glenn was frustrated because she, her husband and her son’s friends couldn’t seem to calm her drunken, agitated 18-year-old son early Saturday. So she called 9-1-1 at 3:05 a.m. for help.

She told a dispatcher her teenage son, Lukus, was suicidal, standing outside their house in the Garden Home area of unincorporated Washington County with a knife to his throat.

Minutes after Washington County sheriff’s deputies and a Tigard police officer arrived and Glenn’s son, Lukus, refused to drop his knife, officers fired bean-bag rounds at him. When Glenn turned toward the house, two deputies fired several gunshots. Relatives said the teenager collapsed by a doorstep. He died at the scene.

The sheriff’s office did not say how many times or where Glenn was shot, but said the deputies fired because they were concerned he might harm family inside.

[alice_in_wonderland]

@astro

The question stands however. If someone is drunk and threatening to do harm to themselves with a weapon, is calling the police going to be more dangerous to the violent drunk person than their own drunken threats to harm themselves?

Humm - druk person, with knife, threatening to harm self or others.

Yah - I would phone the police.

I’m not totally sure why the deputies in this situation didn’t tazer him or something, but I’m not a cop, I wasn’t there, and I have to assume (if only so I can still sleep nights) that cops aren’t in the habit of gunning down people for no reason. So - yep, call the cops.

What’s the alternative - charge at the guy yourself?

[fessie]

Why the hell didn’t the police get the family OUT of the house, if they were so concerned about their well-being? Doesn’t sound like they had a handle on the situation at all, just jumped in there with guns drawn. Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought that good police meant establishing some control, not just reacting; OTOH, it was 3:00 a.m., not many people are at their best.

It’s rather a no-win situation – couple of years back, in our suburban Chicago town, there was a teenager who decapitated his mother & left her head on the front stoop.

Sad for that family, though; I wonder if he was on some kind of hallucinogen.

[SnakesCatLady]

Unfortunately in many cases calling the police is your only option. If you can get a potentially suicidal person to cooperate with you and go quietly to the nearest psych hospital that is, of course, your best option. Often that is not going to be the case, and force will be required. If Joe-off-the-street uses force on another person, he risks being charged with assault even if he’s only trying to help.

That said, IMO the police handled this situation very badly. I believe there were options short of lethal force that could have been used, especially considering the guy had a knife, not a gun.