Police Employ TASER On Suicidal Man

A man in downtown Belfast, Maine who hid himself in the bushes, threatening to harm himself on Thursday afternoon was apprehended by a police TASER gun.Around 12 p.m., the man is alleged to have called his probation officer saying that he wanted to harm himself with a knife. Police were able to locate the man on the corner of High Street and Pendleton Lane, where they found him hiding in the bushes.

When police arrived they were able to confirm that the man did in fact have a knife and was threatening to harm himself with it. Initially police tried to make the man give the knife up, and while he did hold the knife up, he wouldn’t let go of it. He was then ordered to drop the knife, which he refused to do.

Police would have apprehended the man earlier with the use of the self defense device; however, because his whole body was hidden in the bushes they were unable to get a clear view of him.

Eventually as police were convincing the man to hand over the knife, he exposed his arms and chest to allow police to make their move with the utilization of the self defense stunning tool. This they did and were able to take the man into police custody without further incident.

In today’s society, it is important for police to have access to a wide range of self defense tools. Whenever they are called to a situation they don’t know what they will encounter, and as a result, they need to be prepared with the help from a wide range of devices.

While not all situations will call for the need of a TASER gun, simply knowing that it is close by gives the officers the peace of mind that they can use it if the situation calls for it. In this above incident it was apparent that police needed to act quickly in order to gain control of the situation and to prevent the man from harming himself.

This would only be achieved with the help from a stunning weapon that has been designed with safety in mind and that is non-lethal to use. Talking to the man to hand over the knife was attempted, but when it became clear that this wasn’t going to work other avenues were needed.

This is why there are now many police departments that have introduced the use of these tools into the force. The results show that they are effective at what they do, which is to protect the officers and the public from harm while still apprehending a suspect without worrying about the harmful repercussions that other tools would produce.