Newton Man In Crisis Threatens Suicide By Cop, Twice: Police

NEWTON, MA — Police were called twice Saturday for a report of an armed man threatening to harm himself by way of "suicide by cop."

The term "suicide by cop" is used to describe a method in which someone in a mental crisis, sometimes armed, tries to provoke a police officer into shooting them. A police think tank estimates that of the nearly 1,000 fatal police shootings each year, about 100 of those are suicide.

Around 1:45 p.m. March 6, someone called police to report a 20-year-old man threatening to kill himself armed with a knife and BB gun. They told police he was threatening to charge officers when they came.

When police got to the home, they said they found the man saying he wanted officers to harm him. During this time, he was holding a black handgun in his right hand down by his right side, police said, noting they were able to disarm him without harming him or themselves in the process.

The man was taken to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for a mental-health evaluation. Rather than arrest him, they cited him with assault with a deadly weapon, the BB gun, police said. But later that same evening, he was released from the hospital and the man's mother called police to report a domestic dispute, telling police he was again talking about suicide by cop.

"Upon arrival, officers were informed the subject was upstairs in his room, and it was unknown if he had any weapons, but his mother reported to police that he could be in possession of a knife or gun," police said.

On their way up the stairs, police said the man came out of his room with his hand hidden from view in the pocket of his sweatshirt, and didn't listen when police asked him to take the hand out of his pocket. Instead, he told police he had a gun. Police said an officer was able to get the man to remove his hand and show there was no gun.

The man resisted arrest, and again indicated he wanted police to shoot him and grabbed at an officers gun, disengaging the safety mechanism before police said they were able to handcuff him.

He was arrested and sent to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for a mental health evaluation, police said.

In addition to the earlier citations, police said he is being charged with assault and battery on a police officer for felony-attempting to disarm an officer and resisting arrest.

Echos of February

The calls to respond to the young man during a mental crisis, during which no one was seriously injured, come just a month after two Newton police officers fatally shot a 28-year-old man who flashed a knife in a candy shop in Newton Highlands. That shooting caused an outcry in Newton and renewed calls for police reform. The city has just formed a community crisis intervention team and has discussed not having police respond to calls where there may be a mental health crisis.

Police say fatal shootings like the Newton Highlands one, are rare. In Newton, the last fatal police shooting was in 1973, Wicked Local reported.

Still, generally there has been no guide for departments to follow on how to handle to these specific incidents until recently. The police think tank group Police Executive Research Forum came up with a training guide to respond to suicide by cop threats in 2019, reported the Washington Post.

Interim Police Chief Howard Mintz said, while he's not familiar with that training guide, which came out when he was in retirement, the mayor has discussed the possibility of having list of best practices for police when dealing with mental health issues in the city.

"There's been a lot of focus on police response to mental health calls, as the problem has increased," he said. "Police are in difficult, complex situations where there's certainly a threat to police safety and citizen safety."

Police training in Newton has focused on de-escalation and trying to help by getting people who need it to a hospital to receive treatment, he said.

Mintz said he can't comment on why this situation turned out different from the February shooting because the Middlesex District Attorney's office is still investigating. In this particular instance, he said, "It's important to see that police officers showed remarkable restraint evaluated the situation accurately and were very respectful to this young man and his mother who was present."

As for calls for police to let a social worker or mental health clinician respond when there's a mental health related call, instead of police?

"We support crisis intervention workers, and social workers, and have had a full time social worker on staff for years," Mintz said. "But the role of police is really to make sure the scene is safe. We can't have a social health worker walk into a place where someone has a weapon."