** (Disclaimer: Video posted strictly for educational and information purposes only) **
Detective Howard Brickner and Corporal Lynn Bays narrowly averted a suicide by cop scenario earlier this year with determination and quick thinking, according to Pulaski County Detective Captain Linda Burgess. Marcus Lavender was determined to commit suicide by cop by his own admission, according to the body camera footage provided by the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department. Bays’ body camera was on and recorded the entire incident. Lavender was recently sentenced on two charges related to the incident. He received four years in the Department of Corrections for Unlawful Use of a Weapon and seven years for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, lesser charges he pleaded guilty to instead of the five earlier charges he had pending. Brickner told that he and Bays went to Lavender’s residence for a well-being check call. After arriving, they were warned by dispatch that Lavender had made threatening remarks about trying to shoot any officers that arrived on scene.
They noticed an open bottle of alcohol in the seat of a truck on the property and according to the video footage, and Brickner’s account, Bays walked around to the back of the house, while Brickner knocked on the front door.“The front door was opening with the muzzle of a weapon behind it. I grabbed a hold of the muzzle pushing it away and wrapped around the guy and we started to wrestle with the gun. It went off. I had yelled for my partner and he’d come running,†Brickner said. Brickner said that his main thought was he needed to get “the muzzle of that weapon planted in the ground where it wasn’t going to be able to do anything.†Bays ran to assist Brickner after he called his name, heard the shot being fired just before he rounded the corner of the house, and came upon Brickner struggling with Lavender in the front yard over a rifle. Bays drew his weapon and ordered Lavender to drop his weapon, but did not shoot because Brickner and Lavender were struggling for the rifle and there was a risk that Bays could hit Brickner. Bays used is his taser on Lavender and helped Brickner secure him, while Lavender begged the officers to shoot him, telling them, “I want to die.â€
According to the probable cause statement in the incident, Lavender’s girlfriend was inside the house with her two children when this happened. Pulaski County Sheriff Jimmy Bench said the incident shows that the agency doesn’t “see black or white†and that it’s about saving lives. “We see a life, that’s all that matters. Your end goal is for everyone to go home safe,†Bench said. Burgess said that hearing that gun shot or hearing shots fired on a call gives you the “awfullest feeling ever†and there’s an adrenaline dump while trying to see everyone out of a situation like that alive. “They handled the situation the best way they knew how without shooting someone. I commend them for that. When you’ve got a gun pointed at you, that’s awful hard,†Bench said. Brickner told that he hasn’t had a gun pointed at him too many times in his career and this was the first time a gun was fired.
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Hard to watch. Life beats down people. Hope he gets help.
ðŸ‘Thats sad, the police have a tough job.
The guys that want to live always get shot and killed.
The guys that don't want to live get tased or tackled and restrained. 🤦ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸ðŸ¤·ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸
We’ve all been Marcus once in our lives unfortunately not all of us have had guardian angels like these two officers
That’s weird the msm has told me white cops are always hunting unarmed black ppl to kill
I'd wanna die to if I had a shit rifle like that.
Good job offiers I wish we saw more of this type like this on the news
"Well…nothing see here!"
-News media
Wait white cops didn’t just shoot the black man? I thought they were all white supremacists.
Wow dude 😳 ! This is some of the bullshit cops gotta deal with !
These officers put themselves in great danger trying to get this guy in custody without using lethal force .
But I'm sure they'll be vilified by the press regardless of their efforts to save the man's life so he can get some psychological help.
They should have given him his wish, shit bag was killing kittens and shooting his neighbors before this.
Damn man almost made me cry at the end.. if I was the cop I would have handcuffed him then just laid down beside him and talk about life for a while
Hopefully they got him the help he needed
He would later shoot a man (who lived) in 2019.
Yo I almost cried, the sound in his voice. Cops did an absolutely phenomenal job.
lol what a bitch.
Now they are some decent cops. I feel ya Marcus but that's not the way.
If there is ever the doubt in your mind when you feel like you need to be intervened, just pick up the phone and talk to a Veteran, Nurse, Mother, Bartender…
Whatever you can think of, there will be somebody in your circle that could give you some time to vent!
Thank you LEOs. You are heroes. Please someone get him some help so this doesn't happen again.
This is the reason why we need gun control, because of unstable folks like this man, trying to commit suicide by cop, he can shoot any one or himself with that "what seems to me like an AK 47 barrel" unstable folks like this gentleman should not be allowed to wield a gun of any kind.
Well what you know the taser didn't work!!
but they keep telling me that white cops loved killing black people …..
AM I BEING LIED TO ?!?!?!?
that truly hurt to watch. but also good. the officers did amazing and he is alive today because of that. but i can also feel his pain. i was at that point recently. had a lot of thoughts on how to go out and cops was one of them. id never hurt any of them…but make them think that i would…would have suited me perfectly. i am no longer in that mindset…and i hope that these officers intervention and counseling afterwards got him out of that very same mindset. no matter how bad it gets…suicide is not the right choice. i wish i could talk to this man. share stories. i can relate to a lot and i wish i could help him. pray for him guys. this is a human life. God listens
Excellent policing.
But wait, he's not white. But CNN said: insert bullshit
I feel like that guy sometimes. They don't care about us buddy. You probably never got the help you needed cause that kind of help this world doesn't offer. Stay strong brotherman. These people make life miserable, I understand why you want to give it away. You didn't ask for it in the first place. Fucking bastards, eh buddy. Fuck em.
If he hadn't been saying please shoot me they probably would have
Marcus hang on !! Nothin is worth your life !!! Nothing !!!
And they say cops shoot black people on sight without a second thought…
Good police work
God please help him
“If he was black they woulda shot himâ€
Damn, this one hits hard. The man is completely broken and wants to die. He's armed with a bad rifle too, luckily the officers were able to get it away from him before he did anything he would regret. Hopefully Marcus is able to recover from this dark moment and build himself up again. Incredible work by the officer to stay disciplined and not take the shot, he would have completely been justified but saw a way out of the situation without taking the man's life.
He lost the password to his bitcoin account
Sadly a couple years later someone killed his kitten and he shot them in the leg for it.
Hopefully he got some legitimate help and he's doing better now. It's uncomfortable for me to see someone at a point where life is meaningless and death is preferable.
Sounds like a man who is in the middle of some serious personal shitstorm.
I have a little advice for him. Never let the bastard win. Living well is the best revenge
Damn, sad as hell to be that depressed and not want to live. Glad the officers could get the gun away. Tasers don't always work. Unfortunately, these dangerous brave selfless acts of LEOs rarely make the national news.
Holy fuck my heart goes out to Marcus
They kill when we wana life
They save when we wana dia
Hooah!
Hope you’re still with us, and in a better place, Marcus.
Whats the story behind this?
Hope this man got the help he truly needed
“If he was black they woulda shot himâ€Â