Woodbridge police avert tragedy with electrical device

• On Tuesday%2C Woodbridge police received a call of an apparent suicidal man with a knife in the Hopelawn section of the township.
• Police responded to the scene with a conductive energy device%2C a type of stun gun that emits an electrical charge or current used to temporarily disable a person.
• A sergeant used the device to get the man to drop a knife he had pressed to his neck.
• This was the first time Woodbridge police have used the conductive energy device to avert a tragedy.

WOODBRIDGE – A Hopelawn man, who apparently threatened to kill himself and urged police to shoot him, was transported to the hospital after police used an electrically charged device to get the man to drop the knife he had pressed against his neck.

This is the first time a conductive energy device, a type of stun gun that emits an electrical charge or current used to temporarily disable a person, has been used by the Woodbridge Police Department.

Around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, police received a call of an apparent suicidal man with a knife in the Hopelawn section of the township. Sgt. Randal Aptaker, the acting shift commander, responded to the location with the conductive energy device.

Woodbridge Police Director Robert Hubner said the department was authorized in 2012 to use the device to prevent a person from causing death or serious bodily injury to themselves, a police officer or another person.

Police said the man, in his early 20s, left his home while still in possession of a knife and started walking along Florida Grove Road. As police approached him, the man was ordered to "drop the knife."

According to police, the man had already cut himself several times on the forearm and also had pressed the knife to his neck several times, threatening to kill himself. As the man walked toward police, he screamed at them to "shoot me" but backed off each time police ordered him to.

Police said Aptaker, armed with the device, approached the man. When he was about 10 to 15 feet away, the man noticed Aptaker and started yelling at him, acting irrational and threatening to harm himself.

Aptaker pointed the device at the man, who put the knife up to his neck again. Police said Aptaker discharged the electrical current device, striking the man, who dropped the knife. Police then rushed to the man and, after a brief struggle, handcuffed and transported him to Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy Division.

Police said the actions taken by Aptaker and other officers who responded avoided injury to the man or the officers. The officers were able to maintain a distance from the man while continuing to talk to him before discharging the device. Hubner said a tragedy was averted because of the proper use of the device.

Staff Writer Suzanne Russell: 732-565-7335; srussell@mycentraljersey.com