By Don Jacobs
Knoxville News-Sentinel
WEST KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Police negotiators on Wednesday peacefully ended a threehour standoff with a man who held a gun to his head at a West Knoxville park.
The 27-year-old man was taken by ambulance from Sequoyah Park to a hospital for a mental evaluation. No charges are expected, said Darrell De-Busk, spokesman for the Knoxville Police Department.
“Our primary concern right now is to get him the care he needs,” DeBusk said.
Police declined to identify the man. DeBusk said he is a graphic artist who lives in Knoxville and has had family problems. He is not married, has no prior criminal record and has been under a doctor’s care.
The standoff began at 8:24 a.m. when a jogger at the park off Cherokee Boulevard saw the man sitting on a bench holding a gun. When officers arrived, the man placed the .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol to his head and told them to stay back, De-Busk said.
That prompted activation of the KPD’s Special Operations Squad, which secured the area to contain the armed man. The squad also brought in an armored personnel carrier that served to protect police negotiators as they spoke to the man from a distance of 50-60 feet, DeBusk said.
Police closed several blocks of Cherokee Boulevard to pedestrians and vehicles during the standoff in the 1600 block.
Throughout the incident, the man never left the picnic table where he was first seen, DeBusk said. The man did not threaten officers with the gun.
Police brought the man’s girlfriend and brother to the scene, but they did not speak with the man, DeBusk said.
At 11:22 a.m., the man removed the magazine from the gun, cleared the chamber and put the weapon down. It contained seven rounds.
He had three one-page, handwritten suicide notes on him when police took him into custody. All were addressed to family members.
Members of the Knoxville Police Department Special Operations Squad retrieve a gun from a Sequoyah Park picnic table and take an unidentified man into custody Wednesday after a threehour standoff.
Copyright 2007 The Knoxville News-Sentinel