JONESBORO, Ark. – A man that attempted suicide Monday in the middle of a Jonesboro intersection while police tried fruitlessly to get him to stand down has died.
The stand off happened on French Street at an intersection with Easy Street, JPD Public Information Specialist Sally Smith told NEA Report. It unfolded sometime around 5 PM Monday. The man was said to be standing in the intersection with a gun to his head. Smith said police tried to negotiate with him. Sadly, the man shot himself in the head.
The wound was mortal. The man was taken to the hospital. According to Detective Jacob Daffron, he passed away at 2:35 PM Tuesday afternoon.
The incident report details the call coming in at the intersection just before 5 PM. A large number of officers converged on the area where Dennis Mitchell Weaver, 58, of Jonesboro, was standing in the middle of the intersection with a black pistol to his head. Officer Stephen McDaniel reported seeing him holding the handgun not only on himself, but waving it around in every direction – including the officers’. He was cursing, pacing, and ignored commands.
The department’s negotiator, Detective Keri Varner, arrived at the scene not long after the incident began. She identified the man and worked to get him to put the weapon down but the man appeared very agitated as he paced up and down French Street with the gun to his head.
After several minutes communicating with Varner, the man walked south on French and stopped. He put the firearm to the left side of his head and fired the weapon. He fell to the ground with a mortal wound. Officers immediately ran to him. They secured the weapon and attempted to render aid while Emerson’s Ambulance personnel arrived. The man was taken to St. Bernard’s Medical Center and passed away at 2:35 PM Tuesday afternoon, according to Detective Daffron.
CORRECTION: Initially following the incident, JPD told NEA Report the man had passed away at the scene. However, family reached out telling us this was incorrect and that he was still alive. After following back up with Smith, who checked with officers at the scene, she told NEA Report he was still breathing. Smith said she had been incorrectly told by officers at the scene the man had expired.
NEA Report regrets this error and has reached out to the family personally to express this.
That man had been raped in the craighead county jail earlier that week and wanted answers. If you listen to the tapes and watch, what are the cops describing as “being on a six hour mosquito bite”? The whole thing sounded staged and a set up to cover more dirty activity in a city that takes whatever it wants from individuals no matter what, usually in the end their life.