OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Overland Park police engaged in a four-hour standoff Sunday with an armed and possibly suicidal man near 121st and Grant streets.
The incident started around 12:30 p.m. with a call about a depressed man with a shotgun who was contemplating suicide and headed into a wooded area.
While no shots had been fired, a police spokesman said officers feared for the man's safety after losing contact with him.
Officers with crisis intervention training, as well as members of the Overland Park Police Department's Crisis Intervention Team, responded to the scene.
"They came out to use everything that we have within our power to make sure this came together as peacefully as it did," Officer Justin Seals explained.
Four hours after the call came in, officers were able to take the man into custody around 4:30 p.m. without incident. Seals credited good communication.
"Unfortunately, they do end in circumstances we never want, and to hear about a situation where we can take someone in peacefully, that's a good day for not only law enforcement, but the community we're here to protect and serve as well," he said.
Overland Park is one of 13 cities that utilize the Johnson County Mental Health Center's co-responder program.
Through that program a mental health professional can accompany officers on calls involving mental health or substance abuse. However, a co-responder was not dispatched Sunday to the standoff.
