Police disarmed a hatchet-wielding bus rider with a Veterans Day ‘thank you’
Boston Police officers successfully calmed down an MBTA bus rider holding a hatchet to his own neck by thanking the veteran for his service, police said.
Officers were called to an MBTA Route 17 bus in Dorchester at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, where they encountered a heavy-set white man in his fifties holding a hatchet to his own neck, threatening to harm himself.
The officer began telling the bus rider to drop the weapon in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, according to police. During that conversation, the man said he was a veteran.
“Thank you for your service,’’ one of the officers told him, police said.
In response, the man put down the hatchet and walked off the bus into a waiting ambulance, according to police.
The veteran faces charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and interfering with public transportation, according to The Boston Globe.
“When the guy mentioned he was a veteran, thanking him for his service on Veteran’s Day just seemed like the right thing to say and, maybe, it was the thing he needed to hear,’’ said Captain Haseeb Hosein, one of the officers on scene. “The goal on a call like this is for everyone to go home safe and, thankfully, today everybody did.’’
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