Some headlines just write themselves. Anaheim Police fired non-lethal rounds into the windows of a red smart car before removing a despondent man with a handgun last night.
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First cops received a call around 10 p.m. Monday about an intoxicated man in a smart car parked outside the Extended Stay America motel at 1085 North Pacific Center Drive, Anaheim. Next came a call from the man's family describing him as despondent and suicidal, according to Anaheim Police Sgt. Bob Dunn, the department spokesman.
Officers on scene tried to reason with the unidentified fellow, but “he was not able to function,'' Dunn told City News Service, explaining that the man appeared to have overdosed on something.
The harsh “dummy” descriptor from the headline is based on what was found in the seat next to him: a handgun. As close readers know, stories involving drunk or drugged folks with handguns surrounded by police can end tragically.
Fortunately for this desperate soul, Anaheim's SWAT team and other officers ringing the smart car fired only non-lethal rounds that shattered windows before he was pulled out and taken to a hospital for a likely mental health evaluation.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.