The Jan. 23 standoff in White Center ended peacefully after a King County deputy kept cell phone communication alive with a suicidal man who had a handgun pressed to his head for several hours, according to KCSO Sgt. Cindi West.

The deputy was able to develop a rapport with the distressed man and kept him from pulling the trigger.

The standoff ultimately ended in White Center around 10:30 p.m. when the man, located in his vehicle and demanding that officers stay away, tried to flee. A patrol officer rammed his vehicle into a fence at 15th Ave S.W. and S.W. 102nd S.W. and SWAT team members were able to safely apprehend the man. He was transported to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation, West said.

Recounting the ordeal, West said earlier in the evening the man’s wife called 911 to report they had been arguing, possibly over divorce. He left the north Burien home and she feared he was suicidal.

The woman gave police her husband’s cell phone number and a deputy with four years on the force called the man and kept him on the phone, attempting calm him and find out where he was located.

The deputy, who had gone through crisis intervention training in the past year according to West, stayed on the phone with the man for around an hour and talked with him about his problems, but was unable to establish his location.

Deputies ultimately found the man driving in White Center but he warned the deputy that police needed to stay back and said he had a gun. At that point a containment zone was set up and traffic was steered clear.

For two hours the man held a gun to his head and threatened to shoot himself while the deputy maintained contact, and it turned out he had some seasoned help.

According to West, there happened to be two hostage negotiators on patrol that evening who responded to the scene and helped support the deputy as he tried to calm the distraught man (they decided to keep the deputy on the phone because he had established a rapport with the man).

West said the decision was made to block the man in if he attempted to flee the scene, and after two intense hours he went for it. A patrol vehicle employed a ramming maneuver and put the subject’s car into the fence, stopping him and, according to West, jarring the gun from the man’s hands to the floorboard on the passenger side.

“They cannot let him go because we do not want him to be a danger to others,” West said. “Sometimes when people are suicidal they do not hesitate to take somebody else out, or force the hand of the police to shoot them because they can’t do it themselves.”

“It’s a win-win situation,” West said. “The man was transported to Harborview and now he will get the help that he needs and no one was hurt in the process.”