Male in crisis safely detained by officers

Last Tuesday, an officer who was seated in his marked patrol vehicle was aggressively approached by a very agitated adult male from Seattle who was exhibiting signs of mental crisis. The male had an aluminum baseball bat on his person which was visible to the officer and also had a hammer on his person at the time of the contact.

For his safety and to provide distance between himself and the male, the officer moved his vehicle away from the male while giving verbal commands for him to stop approaching his patrol vehicle so that he could safely communicate with him. The male refused to follow the officers verbal commands to stop and continued aggressively approaching him which caused the officer to call for immediate backup.  

Officers were able to safely de-escalate the situation and detain the male without incident. He was transported to the hospital for mental evaluation. The officer did an outstanding job of utilizing his de-escalation and crisis intervention training (CIT) to recognize that the male was in mental crisis, provide distance between himself and the male until backup could arrive, then safely approach and disarm him of the bat and hammer without incident.