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LAKEWOOD – A Lakewood man shot himself during a domestic dispute Monday evening and Lakewood-Busti Police Chief John Bentley said it shows the dangers law enforcement officers can face on a daily basis.
Bentley said his officers responded to West Fairmount Avenue near Spruce Street at 8:26 p.m. Monday and found a man in a driveway with a handgun.
Police tried talking to him and he then fired a round into the ground before firing at himself, Bentley said.
“It’s extremely stressful. It puts a lot of liability and responsibility on the responding officers to try to resolve this without something like this happening,” Bentley told WNYNewsNow.
“This is an everyday kind of call where we’re responding to a domestic dispute. You never know how it’s going to turn out. You will go to a lot of them where there’s no problem. You’ll talk to the people and it will be resolved with a report.
Then you’ll end up with something like this on the other end of the spectrum and everything in between from assaults to property damage.”
Bentley said body camera footage showed the officers handled the incident properly and administered first aid immediately.
He said he told the officers he is glad they are okay.
Charges are pending, dependent on the medical outcome, according to Bentley.
He said the man allegedly brandished his weapon at bystanders who tried to intervene to help the man’s wife, who police said with whom he was arguing.
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