HURRICANE —A call to 911 Saturday night triggered a multiagency response to West State Street where a distraught man with a gun ultimately shot and injured himself despite negotiators talking to him for nearly two hours, a shot that proved fatal by Sunday morning when he died.
The incident began at 9 p.m. when an employee at Walgreens, 1235 W. State Street, called 911 reporting a man “acting odd,” Hurricane Police officer Ken Thompson said.
Once officers arrived they were confronted with a man armed with a gun. As they were speaking with him, the man was threatening suicide.
More officers, negotiators and task force members from several agencies were called in to assist. The Hurricane Police Department’s armored rescue vehicle was also deployed along with Washington County’s Metro SWAT unit.
Officers continued speaking with the man who then went across the street into a 7-Eleven convenience store parking lot, and from there moved on into the parking lot of Lin’s Marketplace with police close behind him.
As numerous officers and task force members arrived at the scene, and with the help of Utah Department of Transportation’s Incident Management Team, state Route 9 was cordoned off in both directions from approximately South 1700 West to South 1000 West during the incident response. A number of cross streets were also barricaded to divert traffic from the area.
“We’ve been out here for over an hour talking to him, negotiating with him and trying to solve the problem, and at this point we are still talking to him,” Thompson said in an initial interview with St. George News shortly after 10 p.m.
Negotiations continued for nearly two hours from the time of the initial 911 call. While officers were attempting to calm the man and negotiate a safe outcome, he shot himself.
An ambulance waiting on standby quickly responded to the parking lot and transported the injured man to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George for treatment.
Thompson confirmed to St. George News Sunday that the man died Sunday morning.
“We aren’t quite sure why he ended up where he did or what caused him to do this” Thompson said Saturday, noting the ongoing nature of the investigation.
The Hurricane Police Department, Washington City Police Department, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, LaVerkin Police Department, Utah State Parks, Utah Highway Patrol, National Park Service, Washington County Metro SWAT, Utah Department of Transportation Incident Management Team and Hurricane Valley Fire and Ambulance.
This report is based on statements from police or other emergency responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.
My heart aches for this persons life lost and I’m sure his crushed family. When I heard about a suicidal armed man I prayed, it was all I could do. I know life takes us all thru painful valleys and sometimes in all our busy lives we forget to hug that one extra person today, to forgive that one extra person, to admit our unconditional love to someone every day… Then maybe thru our own shared love in these habits we can help God stop the demons that pressure and harm us, often imparting us with extreme guilt. I’m so sorry our fine responders have to live with these horrors that happen. We appreciate all of you. I pray his family is heaped immeasurable peace and love. I can only assume mine weren’t the only prayers and that perhaps divine intervention kept anyone else from getting hurt.
One less mentally unstable person, with a gun, for our LEOs to worry about….
This could have turned out a lot worse, if innocent bystanders had become involved, or innocent family members. He saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars by taking his own life.
@CE your compassion shines through. Nice job.
yea CE, try and warm your icy heart. do u need a hug?
Once again, a gun takes an innocent life…Sad
Satan took his life, told him it was his only choice and The person believed it. The gun was just a means to a way.
Choose Jesus. Jesus saves.
He just as easily could have slit his own throat with a knife or hit himself with the claw end of a hammer. Stop blaming inanimate objects.
I’m sure his wife, mother, brother and kids are glad the person they love saved your stupid ass money.
In a world full of hate try a little compassion. Suicide doesn’t end the pain it passes it on to someone else.
This man was a kind and was a great father…. but you don’t care as long as your pockets don’t take a hit.
Oh no, those evil guns I better get rid of mine before they turn on me! ? This is sad enough that this poor guy was depressed enough to kill himself without liberal morons blaming the gun for the way he chose to do it. Just be thankful he didn’t take innocent people with him and pray he is at peace.
This whole situation is a tragedy, I truly feel for this man’s family & the pain they are experiencing. I hope that nobody or their family will ever have to experience something like this. For those that have no sympathy, try putting yourself in their family’s shoes and tell me how you would feel, you never really know until you are in it yourself!
We were in the area Saturday night when we saw this whole thing go down and listened to the events on the police scanner. The police tried to do everything they possibly could to talk this man down and were even talking about using less lethal methods to subdue him, including the use of bean bag guns when the man made the decision to end things. Sometimes you can do everything humanly possible, but mental illness has a mind of its own.
yes its really too bad