Sweet Home Police were able to talk a 50-year-old man into coming out of his home on Tuesday evening, July 14, after he allegedly had threatened to kill himself.
No charges have been filed in the case. The man, whom The New Era is not naming because he committed no actual violent acts and was taken into custody on a police officer mental hold, was taken to the hospital for mental evaluation.
Police received a call from a Fairbanks, Alaska, crisis hotline that reported an armed and suicidal male, Police Chief Bob Burford said. Police responded to 4961 Mimosa Circle at 5:44 p.m. on July 14. The man came out of the house a little after 7:30 p.m. Mimosa Circle is part of the new development located off 49th Avenue just south of Wiley Creek Community.
He had a shotgun and a rifle, Burford said, and officers learned he had been drinking.
“Sweet Home officers responded and made phone contact,” Burford said. “They confirmed the person was making suicidal threats, and he did report to us that he was armed. He was agitated and distraught.
“A police officer carried on a lengthy conversation with him in an attempt to get him to leave his weapons inside and come out.”
At one point, police lost contact, Burford said.
The man also allegedly had insisted he might come out and confront the police, Burford said. The officer on the phone with him spent a lot of time trying to convince him not to do that.
Around the time police lost contact, they had enough personnel, including assistance from Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the Linn County SWAT team, to close the Mimosa Circle area and evacuate neighbors because of the weapons involved, Burford said. Police evacuated neighboring homes a little after 7 p.m.
Police didn’t have enough personnel on the scene to evacuate and control the streets before that, Burford said. They needed to maintain a perimeter on the home “to make sure he didn’t come out with a weapon or shoot through a window.”
When the additional manpower arrived, police were able to evacuate residents safely, he said.
Sweet Home police activated SWAT about an hour into the standoff, Burford said. As the first SWAT members arrived, police made contact with the man again at around 7:30 p.m.
He surrendered at that point and was taken into protective custody, Burford said. Police filed no criminal charges against the man.
“If the medical professionals confirm that it was indeed mental issues that were causing the problem, then we won’t charge him criminally,” Burford said. “Hopefully, he’ll get the attention he needs, and it won’t be refused.”