SAULT STE. MARIE, MI— Chippewa County’s sheriff is praising the actions of officers who prevented a man from committing “suicide by cop.”
Mike Bitnar says in the early morning of October 5th, a deputy was dispatched to Sugar Island on a report of a suicidal male. A U.S. Border Patrol agent volunteered to assist.
When they arrived at the site, a man with a handgun and long gun at his side started yelling at the officers, who took cover and tried to talk him down. The man went into his house and came back out with two handguns tucked in the waist of his pants.
The subject ignored the officers’ commands and started walking toward them. They continued to take cover and backed up as the man walked them down his driveway and down the road. Bitnar says it was apparent he wanted a confrontation and wanted the officers to shoot him.
An opportunity arose for one of the officers to use a taser on the subject, who was taken into custody without a single shot being fired.
Bitnar says the situation could have easily gone in a different direction if not for the outstanding work by the deputy and the special agent from the U.S. Border Patrol.
