Emergency personnel who responded Thursday afternoon to a crash near Lompoc encountered an apparently suicidal person in the vehicle.
Crews were dispatched at about 2:45 p.m. to the single-vehicle accident on West Ocean Avenue at Douglas Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The vehicle, which was traveling at high speed prior to the crash, ended up off the roadway, and personnel on scene were reporting that the driver was armed with some sort of weapon and asking officers to kill him, according to emergency radio traffic.
“By the time deputies arrived about 10 minutes later, they contacted the subject and the subject immediately started not being cooperative, grabbed two pruning shears from inside the vehicle, and began threatening to commit suicide,” said Sgt. Richard Soto of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
A Spanish-speaking officer arrived to conduct crisis intervention with the man, believed to be in 40s.
Negotiations continued for about an hour, during which time the man continued threatening to stab himself.
“Through negotiations, we were able to calm him down a bit,” Soto said. “Unfortunately, at some point he refused to cooperate, and we came up with a plan to use our Tasers to incapacitate the subject, and we were able to take the weapons away and get him the medical attention he needed.”
The man injured his legs in the crash and was taken to a local hospital for treatment, Soto said.
His hometown and age were not released.
West Ocean Avenue was shut down in the area during the incident.
Personnel from the county Sheriff’s Department, county Fire Department, American Medical Response, Lompoc Police Department, Lompoc Fire Department and CHP responded to the incident.
Noozhawk North County Editor Janene Scully reported from the scene.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
