Police Department

Knife wielding man in Mission Park arrested without injury to anyone.

Corporal Maplethorpe

Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 9:29 p.m.

Knife wielding man in Mission Park arrested without injury to anyone.

Today, June 25, 2020, at approximately 7:00 PM, Spokane Police responded to the Mission Park for several reports of a male threatening park goers with a knife.

A nearby two-officer SPD unit located the male walking away from the park.  He appeared agitated and refused several de-escalation attempts by responding officers.  The male refused to stop and attempted to evade the officers by walking through an alley and an apartment complex.  Officers followed and prevented several bystanders from walking into the man’s path. 

After enough units from Patrol Team 10 and the K9 unit arrived on scene to safely address the situation, the man was safely detained on the Iron Bridge.

Officers backtracked the man’s path from the park and located the knife described by witnesses.

The man admitted to being afflicted with several mental health diagnoses and having used Methamphetamines prior to the incident.  He was transported to an area hospital for mental health care.  A charge of harassment – threats to kill is pending.

SPD officers receive extensive training in crisis intervention techniques, less lethal force options and de-escalation techniques.  These techniques do not work in every situation, however SPD officers are of the highest quality character and use outstanding judgement to bring critical and scary incidents to peaceful resolutions whenever possible.

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health crisis there are many resources available to help.  Please call Frontier Behavior Health 24 hour Crisis Line (1-877-266-1818) or Crime Check (509-456-2233).

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