In what turned out to be a two-part incident over the span of nearly 9 hours, a Howell man with a firearm finally surrendered to law enforcement officers.
It was about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday when the man surrendered and was transported to a hospital with superficial self-inflicted cuts to his neck.
The first part of the incident began hours earlier, at about 5:45 p.m. Monday, when deputies from the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office initially responded to a call that a 29-year-old Howell man was shooting a firearm into the ground in the backyard of a home near Long Point Drive in Genoa Township.
Grand River Avenue was closed in both directions in the area for approximately 1-1/2 hours Monday as deputies used the public address speaker on a patrol car to get the man to exit the home, but he never responded.
While the attempt to contact the man was going on, deputies contacted his grandmother, who had been on scene when the firearm was discharged. She told deputies that the man was the only person in the home.
When it was determined that the man was a danger only to himself — and rather than force an altercation between the armed man and deputies — the decision was made to cease efforts to contact him and instead submit charges to the Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office.
The second part began when the man later called 911 from his cellphone, reporting that he had “slit his throat.” Deputies arrived back on scene, along with troopers from the Michigan State Police. The residence was cleared, and the suspect was barricaded in a small shed in the backyard.
Deputies were able to establish contact with the man, and he surrendered a short time later. He was transported by Livingston County EMS to a local hospital for superficial self-inflicted cuts to his neck.
In addition to deputies from the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, troopers from the Michigan State Police, officers from the City of Brighton Police Department, and Livingston County EMS responded to the call.
