the police could not leave—even if the neighbor “calmed him down” if there was a call for and evidence of attempted suicide. The police are mandated to take him to a hospital and at that point the guy IS going to the hospital escorted by police. To do that, the police probably “ordered” the neighbor to leave when the neighbor may have said, “Its ok, he’s calmed down now.”
I still back the police on this. You can not leave someone just there that is suicidal...The police would not have been doing their job to get the person tot he hospital.
And they clearly failed in their own mandate. There is no reason not to seek out the neighbor’s help, given his willingness to help out his neighbor and friend, in further calming the victim down so he can be taken to a hospital for treatment.
The neighbor clearly had a better handle on the situation:
“A neighbor, Ray Wuest, saw firefighters arrive and went to help. He said he has known Dixon more than a decade and — unlike firefighters at the scene — was not intimidated by a pit bull named Chico in the window.
Wuest said he went inside to try to talk to Dixon.
Dixon sat at the kitchen table, he said, with gas spilled all around and on him, smoking a cigarette.
Wuest said he took the cigarette, then went outside to ask firefighters whether they had something to mop up the gas. He said he went back in to clean it up. After he did, the police arrived and insisted he leave. “
Perhaps therein lies the answer-—a private citizen was doing their job better than they did. We can’t have that.
Asking the neighbor to leave allowed the police to escalate the situation privately. No non-government employee witnesses, save the victim.