Officers were called to the hospital an hour before this on a disturbance involving the same man after he became mad at the nursing staff and was acting erratic. The man agreed to calm down and checked himself into the hospital for medical treatment. However, he again became abusive to the nurses after the officers left. At that point, one of the security guards asked him to leave the room. The man responded by getting in the security guard’s face and shoved him backwards. The guard then restrained him in a body lock and removed him from the room. That’s when officers were called back for the second time.
When our officer arrived, he was told that the hospital staff wanted him to leave the premises because of his aggressive behavior and having been involved in several disturbances with the staff. From the previous call, the officer knew that the man had several knives in his pocket, had told officers that he’d previously used drugs, and was feeling paranoid. The officer approached the man and told him that he had to leave the hospital. However, he refused and said that he was not going anywhere. At that point, the officer told him that he was under arrest and told him to stand up so he could be handcuffed. The man briefly complied but then started trying to turn around and hold his hands up the keep the officer from getting close to him. The officer repeatedly told the man to submit to the arrest and he continued to ignore his directions. At that point, he deployed one round from his JPX Cobra pepper gun to the man’s face to try to take him into custody without violence