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Man Threatened Self, Police at Kent Residence on Easter Sunday
A standoff between police and a man threatening suicide ended peacefully at the man's Kent residence on Easter Sunday. Mr. Andre Jamison, of 162 Tibet Road in Kent, threatened to harm police and held a knife to his own throat during the Sunday morning incident.
At about 8:35am on Sunday, a friend of Mr. Jamison's called 911 home and reported that Mr. Jamison was in an emotionally disturbed state at the Tibet Road house, was threatening suicide and had taken too large a dose of a prescription medication. Kent Town Police Sergeant Jerry Raineri was the first police officer to reach the residence but Mr. Jamison had driven away in a car before he arrived there.
Sergeant Raneri alerted other area patrols to be on the lookout for Mr. Jamison and his car and, a few minutes later, Sheriff's Deputy Thomas DesJardins saw the man driving along Pudding Street. The deputy activated the emergency lights and siren on his cruiser in an attempt to stop Mr. Jamison, but he refused to pull over and drove back to his home with the deputy following. Once back at the Tibet Road house, Mr. Jamison got out of his car, ran inside and refused to come out. He locked the doors of the house and barricaded a basement door with furniture. No one else was inside the residence.
Other patrols arrived at the house and observed Mr. Jamison standing at windows and waving a kitchen knife in his hand. He threatened to kill himself and to kill any officers if they tried to enter the house and repeated such threats 10 to 15 times, alternately yelling from behind closed doors or opening the front door momentarily to confront police while holding the knife to his own throat.
Additional police units from the Kent and Carmel Police Departments and the Sheriff's Office responded and surrounded the house. The County Emergency Response Team - a special weapons and tactics squad comprised of officers from the Sheriff's Office and the Carmel and Kent Police Departments- also responded to help secure the area. Police negotiators from the Kent and Carmel Departments and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety were also dispatched to the scene.
After almost two hours of telephone discussions between the negotiators and Mr. Jamison, he emerged unarmed from the house at about 11am and surrendered. Mr. Jamison was not physically injured, but was taken to PutnamHospital Center in Carmel for psychiatric evaluation.
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