Man With Knife Taken Into Custody Amid Mental Health Crisis: RPDPS

ROHNERT PARK, CA — The Sonoma County Sheriff's Hostage Negotiations Team was called to help detain a man armed with a knife and suffering from a mental health crisis Tuesday in Rohnert Park, police said.

The incident involving a 58-year-old man started at 1:35 p.m. when a Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety officer contacted the man at Adrian Drive and Southwest Boulevard, Rohnert Park DPS Lt. Matt Snodgrass said.

"Immediately upon contact the subject pulled out a knife and stuck it to his neck," Snodgrass said. "The officer began communicating with the subject requesting him to drop the knife and seek mental health assistance. The subject began walking away and stopped in the area of College View Drive."

Additional public safety officers responded and blocked off the area to the public. Officers began establishing a rapport with the man as he continued to hold the knife to his neck, Snodgrass said.

The situation escalated when the man cut his neck several times, as well as his clothing, the lieutenant said.

The Sonoma County Sherriff Hostage Negotiations Team was contacted and arrived to assist, and Sonoma County Fire medical personnel and Rohnert Park Public Safety fire personnel were staged nearby as a precaution.

Around 2:33 p.m., after officers and negotiators communicated with the man for nearly an hour while his behavior with the knife continued escalating as he lunged at the officers, he slipped and dropped the knife, the lieutenant said.

Officers used that opportunity to deploy a 40-mm soft sponge round, bean-bag rounds and a Taser. The man was safely taken into custody and transported by ambulance to a local hospital.

The Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety will forward charges to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office but said the man's name would not be disclosed because the incident was mental health-related.