According to officials, a guy was slitting himself with a knife at Portland International Airport on Saturday when a Port of Portland police officer deployed a Taser on him.
Around 2:30 p.m., emergency personnel arrived at the ticketing area to discover a guy aggressively hurting himself with a knife. In an attempt to save his life, an officer tased him, according to the Port of Portland. According to spokesman Allison Ferr, efforts to resuscitate the man failed.
She was searching for the security line to reach her gate for her flight back to Los Angeles when she heard someone exclaim, “Oh my God, he’s going to kill himself,” according to a woman who saw a portion of the incident and recorded it on camera. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous for her own protection, claimed that she turned and witnessed a man slashing at his wrists with a knife.
The man was wearing cargo trousers, a black hoodie, and a black cap, according to the video she took and shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive. He was also carrying a knife, which he used to repeatedly cut his wrists, spilling a large amount of blood on the airport floor.
As onlookers yell for assistance, the man is seen in the video dropping the knife, picking it up, and putting it to his throat. About 20 seconds after the video begins, a second man approaches the man with the knife. He is dressed all in black and has what looks to be the word POLICE inscribed on his back. He pauses around six feet away and holds out his right hand, revealing a yellow device that appears to be a Taser.
Someone yells, Don’t do it.
The video then shows the man with the knife slicing at his own throat.
A loud, sudden noise that sounds like a gunshot occurs about ten seconds after the officer approaches the subject, and the man with the knife drops his arm from his throat and begins to collapse.
According to Ferr’s email, the officer tried to prevent the person from harming themselves and save their life by using a Taser, a less deadly conducted-electrical weapon.
She claimed that as soon as she heard the gunshot-like sound, the woman who had checked in for her ticket to Los Angeles stopped filming out of fear of being shot and began to flee. About ten seconds later, she continued, she heard two more sounds that sounded like gunshots in short succession.
Ferr stated in an email that attempts to stop the person who was actively self-harming were attempted when Port police arrived on the scene, but they were eventually and regrettably unsuccessful. The medical examiner will need to review the circumstances of the inquiry because the Port’s EMS response was unsuccessful in reviving the person.
Although the county acknowledged that it is looking into a death at the airport, it would not elaborate. According to an email from a county official, the person’s family has not yet been informed.
Fedor Zarkhin is an enterprise and breaking news reporter. Have you got a story? Contact him by email at [email protected] or by phone at 971-373-2905.
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