A knife-wielding suicidal man was saved by Grosse Pointe Farms Police officers.
What made the situation more nerve-wracking, he was standing near a drive-thru lane, not far from innocent bystanders.
The suicidal man had a steak knife in hand with self-inflicted cuts and blood on his clothes. He was threatening to hurt himself.
When the first officer arrived, the man kept shouting 'shoot me', prompting a potential suicide by cop situation. It was all caught on the officer's body camera.
"Drop the knife! Get on the ground! Drop the knife and get on the ground!"
That is what Grosse Point Farms Officer Matt Hurner kept saying to this suicidal man.
Chief Daniel Jensen, the Director of Public Safety, said it was an attempt of suicide by cop.
The man had self-inflicted wounds and threatened to kill himself at the Wendy's on Mack Avenue on December 7th around 7pm.
"He was very distraught. It was a very volatile situation."
Officer Hurner repeats the commands to drop the knife as part of a training tool called O.O.D.A. It stands for Observe. Orient. Decide. Act.
"Officer Hurner did that several, several times in accordance with department training," Jensen explained. "Giving him the command over and over and over again until backup gets there."
Officer Paul Reygaert arrived and took out his taser.
"When he put the taser sight dot on the subject's chest. The subject observed the taser dot, knew what was next dropped the knife. Officer Hurner holstered the gun and tackled the individual and the threat was eliminated."
Police Chief Daniel Jensen said they couldn't have asked for a better ending.
"The officer wants to go home at the end of the night and he does not want to shoot someone. It's never good when an officer discharges his weapon," he said. "It turned out really well. I would think most police departments would love to have a situation like this end the way it did."
Once he was tackled, the suicidal man was taken to the hospital.
The two officers involved, Officer Matt Hurner and Paul Reygaert, have been nominated for a Merit Award for their actions that night.
