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Suicidal man in 10th/Union standoff was armed with toy gun

20140606-132717-48437048It turns out a man armed with a toy gun on Capitol Hill was responsible for Friday’s two-hour standoff with Seattle Police following a distressing breakup with his girlfriend, according to police reports.

The incident began around 12:30 PM when officers responded to reports of a man brandishing a handgun around 10th and E Union. Within minutes an SPD SWAT team had surrounded the building.

Witnesses told police the 32-year-old man, reportedly suicidal after the breakup, waved a gun at several people near 10th and E Union before entering a garage storage space next to Alleged Tattoo. One witness who told police the man had a storage unit in the building and said he entered the garage space after looking “very confused.”

Determining that the basement storage unit was “not tactically sound for officers to enter,” officers attempted to talk down the suspect with a megaphone from outside the building.

During the standoff police say the man sent a text to his ex-girlfriend saying “I’m about to get arrested.” She then pleaded with the man to not get hurt, to which he responded “Well I have been wanting to kill myself.”

After a two-hour standoff the suspect surrendered his plastic bb gun to officers and was taken safely into custody.

The suspect later told officers he pointed the toy gun at a man in an attempt to scare him as the man had assaulted him in the past. The suspect also said the man was sleeping with his former girlfriend and the entire incident was over their relationship.

The standoff caused several blocks in the vacitiy to be shutdown and prompted Seattle University to lockdown its campus. The incident came a day after a gunman killed one person and injured three others at Seattle Pacific University in Queen Anne.

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Eddio
Eddio
9 years ago

Erm, they’d just broken up. “Ex-girlfriend” would be more accurate.

Robert
Robert
9 years ago

So he was brandishing a toy gun. I guess the screaming match between the gun control nuts and gun rights nuts was utterly pointless. Oh, silly me, I forgot. All screaming matches on comments sections are utterly pointless. But I tell ya what, hoss. You can take away my keyboard when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

ERF
ERF
9 years ago
Reply to  Robert

Toy gun violence is a serious issue in America.

Joe
Joe
9 years ago

Darn SPD, shooting people when they don’t want to be shot and not shooting them when they do. Seriously, though, this could’ve ended much worse (and similar situations in the neighborhood in the recent past certainly have). It looks like the SPD gets a pat on the back here. (Also: among the many things suicidal people don’t think about is the effect choosing “death by cop” has on the cops, and possibly on people those cops interact with somewhere down the line)

Delia
Delia
9 years ago

Isn’t this almost exactly the same spot where Officer Nicholas N. Davis was murdered? I always think about that when I’m at the IHOP there. His killer was released due to budget cuts (i.e., emptying of our mental institutions in to the streets) last I heard.

billdewson
billdewson
9 years ago

I see lots of grinning faces and hear lots of snickering over this story, but I think everyone should consider the seriousness of it too. Toy guns are not to be taken lightly; that anyone should be desperate enough to do such a thing is cause in itself for alarm. If we take these things lightly then before we know it we’ll be living in a society where people become threatening with pointed sticks or walk around armed with fresh fruit. Do you know how to tackle a man armed with a bunch of loganberries?

It makes me so nervous that all I want to do right now is retire with a good cosy book and forget that such heinous criminals walk the streets. Really, I don’t know what things are coming to …