January 7, 2012 in News

Suicidal soldier prompts SWAT standoff

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A suicidal soldier prompted a SWAT standoff in Spokane County this afternoon.

A few minutes before noon, a couple called police after finding a bloody man in a truck parked near Nevada Street and Magnesium Road that was running for more than an hour and a half, said sheriff’s Spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Police thought the 35-year-old man may have been armed with a gun because he is a military reservist, Reagan said. The SWAT team responded after the man refused to exit the vehicle and began revving his engine.

As SWAT moved in, the man exited the truck and surrendered. He had self-inflicted knife wounds to his legs and neck, and was transported to a downtown hospital for surgery and a mental evaluation. A hospital employee said at 4:30 p.m. the man was still in surgery and no condition could be provided.

Spokane police officers assisted with traffic control and Magnesium Road from Nevada Street to Crestline Street was closed for more than an hour.

“A complicated ‘save’ was accomplished without injury to anyone involved because of excellent teamwork by Spokane Police and the sheriff’s office,” Reagan said.

Seven comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Kivaari on January 07 at 6:19 p.m.

  Good job!

• 

  lewis8457 on January 07 at 7:04 p.m.

  I saw the swat truck go buy my house top speed, knew something was happening. Thank you SPD SWAT team.

• 

  1sgdavo on January 07 at 7:29 p.m.

  I want to thank the law enforcment officers who rescued this man and hopefully saved his life. I want to tell the Spokesman review that I thought that this was another attempt to use the military and those who serve as a way to sell papers. Your attempt to say that he was a reserve soldier in the article and suicidal soldier in your headlines was lame at best. I would appear that you are trying to garner bad publicity and tarnish the image of those who have served and are serving still.

• 

  Traveler on January 07 at 7:58 p.m.

  1sgdavo, how would you phrase the headline? He was suicidal, and he was a soldier. If he was a suicidal ex-drummer for KISS, I imagine that would go in the headline, too, and it wouldn’t be an attempt to disparage all the other ex-drummers for KISS, just an effort to more clearly describe the subject of the article.

  The S-R runs all kinds of articles on our military members — many of them praising their service, humanizing them, welcoming them home, etc. There are as many sides to our servicemen and women as there are servicemen and women; shouldn’t they all be shown?

  And besides, it was the cops who mentioned his reserve status in the first place, in explaining their concern on how to handle the situation. I happen to think that’s relevant to the story.

• 

  jimmy on January 07 at 9:38 p.m.

  Was in the neighborhood with my scanner on, and heard a great deal of cooperation with SPD, SCSO, AMR and Fire 9… this event could have had a bad outcome, but these men and women
  who do this kind of work, some of whom are my friends and fomer co workers; in their minds this call was just part of the job

• 

  greenlibertarian on January 07 at 10:43 p.m.

  1sgdavo on January 07 at 7:29 p.m.

  Deeply in denial. Great, another one.

  Just what we need.

  Help’s available, davo. Ask around.

• 

  RedCedar on January 10 at 6:59 p.m.

  I’m glad they saved the guy without shooting him this time. Now I hope he gets the help he needs. Unfortunately there’s no clear and simple way to keep people from being suicidal, and suicide really is a bigger risk for military and ex-military people than for the population at large.