Occasionally a person who wants to commit suicide will create a situation that s/he hopes will provoke the police to shoot them.
Features:
(1) The person has a history of severe depression and/or suicide attempts.
(2) The person is armed with a gun or knife.
(3) The person blatantly approaches police in a threatening and provocative manner. Often there will be more than 1 officer.
(4) The person disregards all instructions from the police to cease and desist.
If a gun is used, it may be a toy gun or one loaded with blanks. No attempt is made to actually harm an officer.
Use of a nonlethal weapon to incapacitate the person allows the person to be disarmed and submitted for evaluation.
Differential diagnosis:
(1) a person high on drugs
(2) police justification of excessive force
To read more or access our algorithms and calculators, please log in or register.
Specialty: Psychiatry, Clinical Laboratory
ICD-10: ,
