News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Two Algood police officers diffused a potential suicide attempt involving a young man on Tuesday.
Officers Matthew Tyree and Kyle Meyer were observing traffic around 5:30 Tuesday morning when a young man bloody with self-inflicted cuts approached them with two large pocket knives. Algood Police Chief Dale Armour said the officers were able to disorient the young man by circling him with their cars and keeping him moving.
“They kept him up and kept him moving around trying to get him off-balance and thankfully we had some other officers around from Putnam County Sheriff’s Department–which we thank them for their quick response to come out,”said Armour. “We tried to negotiate with him and he basically wanted the police department to kill him.”
Armour said that the officers heard the young man say he was planning on committing suicide by driving into the Algood Quarry. Armour said the officers were able to safely subdue the man and he was taken by EMS personnel to Cookeville Regional Medical Center. At this time, there are no updates on his condition and there will be no charges.
Armour said they believe the young man was suicidal and has mental health issues for which they hope he receives treatment.
Algood Police Department has had several situations with individuals having mental health crises in recent months, and Armour said they do their best to prepare officers for them.
Situations like this can often end in tragedy for either side, and Armour said he’s proud of the way the officers handled it.
“As they say the switch could’ve been flipped the other way and it could’ve gone into tragedy real fast,” said Armour. “The officers had just pulled a 12 hour shift–they were about to go home–and as I told them, police work is often long hours of boredom interrupted by moments of total chaos–this was one of them.”
