Video shows officer de-escalate standoff with suicidal man

BALTIMORE – A Baltimore police officer may have saved a life by de-escalating a situation in which a knife-wielding man appeared to be trying to provoke police into shooting him.

Body camera footage first obtained by WBFF-TV shows Officer Angel Villaronga starting a conversation with the man as he pleaded with officers to shoot him, saying that he is holding a knife and is a “threat.”

Villaronga got the man to open up about a domestic situation and eventually convinced him to peacefully surrender. The tense situation took place in September.

Villaronga says he relied on his training as well as personal experience. As a teenager, he says he watched his father threaten to jump from a building, but convinced him to change his mind with the help of officers.