Standoff Ends When Man Goes To Sleep

A standoff between authorities and a 39-year-old Medical Lake man ended early Friday morning when the man and his girlfriend went to sleep, sheriff’s deputies said.

The incident took place at a house in the 300 block of South Walker in Medical Lake.

Sheriff’s deputies and Medical Lake police officers surrounded the house about 5:30 p.m. after receiving reports that a suicidal man armed with a pistol had barricaded himself inside with his girlfriend.

The woman apparently told deputies during the standoff that she was staying with the man voluntarily.

About 9 p.m., the man came outside, pointed the gun to his head and said, “I’m not leaving here alive.”

He then went back inside.

Authorities waited for several hours before determining the man and woman had gone to sleep.

“The whole exercise was to try to get him out of the house and to the hospital,” sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan said Friday. “When we determined he wasn’t a danger to himself or the community anymore, we left.”

Authorities have not released the man’s name.

Potential criminal charges are pending against him, Reagan said.