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HANOVER TWP. — Cellphone footage shows two township police officers standing in the middle of a busy intersection talking to a man who, Police Chief Al Walker believes, wanted to die by suicide by cop on Wednesday.
The video recorded by a Times Leader employee shows multiple vehicles including a cement truck and a large box truck passing the two officers who kept their focus on the disgruntled man in the middle of the Crossroads where Sans Souci Parkway intersects with West End Road and Oxford Street.
Police Chief Al Walker praised the officers for keeping calm and detaining the man without anyone suffering any injuries.
“Our guys responded to a report of a person walking in and out of traffic and when they arrived, they encountered this person,” Walker said.
Two officers responded to the Crossroads just after 2 p.m.
Walker said the man was speaking mostly in Spanish and made gestures that indicated he wanted to die by suicide by cop.
The footage shows officers communicating with the man as several vehicles had stopped and other vehicles continued to pass through the intersection.
“He was being very combative and at one point, he reached for an officer’s Taser and punched an officer,” Walker said. “Our guys continued to talk to him until they went hands-on to arrest him.”
Walker said the officers had a choice to use the Taser but fortunately didn’t as the man was later found to have a defibrillator.
“They continued to interact with him and they didn’t use a Taser. If they had, it could have gone south quickly due to the defibrillator,” Walker said adding one of the officer’s sustained a shock during the arrest.
Walker said the man was transported to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.
“Once our guys got him in custody, he was pretty much spent and calmed down,” Walker said. “Thankfully, no one was injured.”
Walker said charges are forthcoming against the man.