New Orleans police say a man stabbed himself six times, killing himself, when they tried to take him into custody during an incident earlier this month.
It happened on October 4 at a home on State Street near Grape Street. According to the NOPD's Major Offense Log, the incident began as a domestic disturbance call. When officers arrived, they found the man was armed with a large kitchen knife.
NOPD brass say, responding officers tried to stop the man from harming himself, but their tasers failed.
"(They) deployed their tasers that were ineffective. They did not reach what we call N. M. I," NOPD Deputy Superintendent Hans Ganthier said, referring to neuromuscular incapacitation. "I'm not quite sure they had the proper distancing of the probes to be effective."
Ganthier says if the tasers had worked properly and the officers had been able to subdue the man, the officers could have taken the large kitchen knife from the man and saved his life.
"The man then actually began to stab himself several times in the chest," Ganthier said, later clarifying that the man stabbed himself six times. "He never really let go of the knife except when he sat down on the stoop for a little bit, and then (he) picked it back up."
Ganthier credited his officers for using restraint and for trying to deescalate the situation instead of using deadly force.
"They would have been justified to use deadly force, but they really restrained (themselves) from doing that," Ganthier said. "They kept their distance, and they kept talking to him."
Now, the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau is working to figure out why the officers' tasers failed.
"It's just unfortunate that this incident occurred and we were unable to bring about a safe conclusion to this," Ganthier said.
This is the second time this year a suspect stabbed himself to death while in the NOPD's custody. In July, a man accused of shoplifting at the Tchoupitoulas Walmart fatally stabbed himself in the neck after officers found him near the store and tried to arrest him.