MARSHALL TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 36-year-old Marshall man was taken into custody after Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office deputies used beanbag munitions against him when he walked toward deputies with a knife.
Deputies were dispatched about 9 p.m. Wednesday to the 200 block of West Drive North in Marshall Township after the man told dispatch he was suicidal and armed, and that he wanted to be killed by the police, a news release said Thursday.
The man was uncooperative when officers contacted him by phone, and continued calling dispatch demanding a police response.
The sheriff’s office says the man began threatening to start harming other innocent people until law enforcement arrived.
When mental health workers from Summit Pointe tried to speak with him, he refused help and continued threatening to harm innocent people and force a confrontation with law enforcement.
A sheriff’s office crisis negotiator was called in to help diffuse the situation since the man was “highly agitated and in a densely populated area with easy access to many innocent bystanders.”
The negotiator was able to talk with the man for “a short time” before he abruptly ended the phone call and came out of his home carrying a large knife, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies told him to stop and drop the knife, but instead he began advancing toward law enforcement and continued to ignore verbal commands, according to the sheriff’s office.
The man dropped the knife and became disoriented when a deputy engaged the subject with non-lethal beanbag munitions, allowing deputies and troopers to get close enough to use “other less lethal means” to take him into custody without serious injury.
He was taken to the hospital for a medical and mental health evaluation.
Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office deputies were assisted by Michigan State Police, the Marshall Police Department, Calhoun County Consolidated Dispatch and Marshall Firefighters Ambulance.
