A Schuylkill County man was taken into custody Thursday evening after police say he repeatedly called 9-1-1 to provoke a “suicide by cop” and threatened to shoot at responding police.
Alex Spaid, 40, of Cass Township, made at least five phone 9-1-1 calls starting at about 5 p.m. on Thursday, saying he wanted to kill himself, police say. The calls were transferred to police, who say Spaid told them he was calling because he wanted police to respond to his residence at 712 Sunbury Rd. and kill him.
During the phone calls, Spaid reportedly said he would not leave his house alive and wanted to “shoot it out” with police. Spaid asked that police be sent to his residence multiple times and said, “If police show up, I’m going to make them kill me,” police allege.
Police say they arrived at Spaid’s home at 6:10 p.m. and established a perimeter. Spaid was asked to surrender and lay on the ground. He initially refused to follow commands to lay on the ground and said he didn’t have any weapons, police say.
At 6:32 p.m., Spaid did surrender and was taken into custody. When he was taken into custody, police say Spaid was found in possession of two pistol magazines. A Taurus G2C 9mm pistol was also found on the front window sill of his residence.
Spaid is facing a felony count of aggravated assault on designated individuals, misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats, simple assault, communications with 9-1-1 systems, disorderly conduct, and harassment, and a summary count of harassment.
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