Suicide Challenge Fails as Burbank Police Hold Fire

Burbank police said Tuesday that a man loitering in a police station parking lot unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide by pointing a toy gun at two officers and shouting, “I have a gun! Kill me!”

Rather than fire, the officers took the 46-year-old transient into custody, Sgt. Don Goldberg said. He was taken to Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation.

Goldberg said the incident began about 6:40 p.m. Monday when Officers Roger Mason and Carol Myerscough saw the man, whose name was not released, in a parking lot in the 300 block of Olive Avenue. They approached to see what he was doing.

The man drew what appeared to be a handgun and shouted at the officers to shoot.

“There was something about him” that made the officers believe that he wouldn’t shoot, Goldberg said.

He said the officers then grabbed the man. The gun, made of plastic, looked like a blue steel automatic handgun.

After the arrest, Goldberg said, police searched a car the man had parked nearby and found a note that said, “The reason I pointed the gun at the policeman was because I want to die.”