Incident with barricaded man
threatening suicide ends peacefully
April 18, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
A man Santa Paula Police had contact with in the past barricaded himself in a Sheffield Street home for about three hours Tuesday evening threatening to harm himself before the incident ended peacefully.
SPPD Lt. Ish Cordero said the April 15 incident was the first at the home where “Officers had responded to other calls in the past... the man was intoxicated, had some family issues and personal issues,” that caused a report to police at about 8 p.m. that the man was armed.
“Alcohol got the better of him and he threatened to commit suicide... and then passed out,” with up to a dozen SPPD Officers called to the scene outside the residence.
After repeated attempts at phone contact by the SPPD who were not aware the man had passed out, the man finally woke up.
“Ultimately,” said Cordero, “Sr. Officer Walter Harper, our crisis negotiator, did an excellent job... after a period of time the subject agreed to come out.”
Once the 27-year-old man exited the residence, he was transported to Ventura County Public Heath for an evaluation.
“We did recover a weapon,” although Cordero was told, “There were no rounds in there... “
Although “The primary thing is we were able to talk this man out of the house to get him the help he needs and most importantly no one was hurt in the process.
“These things are costly,” he noted, “but cost is secondary... “
Aside from Harper, Santa Paula Police has a high number of Crisis Intervention Team members who receive 40 hours of training on handling incidents that involved those that can be classified as mentally and/or emotionally disturbed.
