Man Found Stabbed in Police Parking Lot

A 44-year-old man was critically injured Thursday morning when he apparently stabbed himself shortly after leaving a Los Angeles police station in Northridge where he had spent the night in the lobby, authorities said.

The Tarzana man was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills after he was found at 6:50 a.m. in the parking lot behind the Devonshire Division station at Etiwanda Avenue and Devonshire Street, Detective Michael Brandt said.

Brandt said the man was found on the ground next to his car by a police officer who had driven into the parking lot. The injured man had a knife or some other sharp instrument pushed through his throat, Brandt said.

Brandt said the incident was being investigated as a suicide attempt.

The man walked into the lobby of the police station at 1 a.m. and asked the front desk officer if he could stay there until morning, when he had an appointment at a nearby psychiatrist’s office. The desk officer allowed him to stay.

“The officer gave him a newspaper and he sat in the lobby and read it,” Brandt said. “He seemed to be OK. There was no indication at the time that anything was wrong, that he was upset or suicidal.”

The man left the station at 6:30 a.m. and was found 20 minutes later.