Life-or-death standoff in NJ kitchen — Quick-thinking cops turned a suicide crisis into survival

🚨Woman in crisis stabbed herself, held knife, and advanced on officers

🚨South Brunswick police avoided deadly force and saved her life

🚨Police Chief says teamwork made the difference

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — Officers used negotiation and a taser to end a standoff with a knife-wielding woman threatening to take her own life.

On Friday night, two South Brunswick police sergeants and a patrol officer went to a home on Kingston Lane after receiving a call about a woman who had stabbed herself in the neck and abdomen. The woman was in a bathroom, bleeding and still holding a knife as the officers began negotiating with her in an attempt to get her to drop the knife.

Two of the officers continued talking to her, but she said very little. She then left the bathroom and went into the kitchen, still holding the knife at waist level and pointed at police.  She walked toward the officers, who slowly backed away. When she came within 7 feet of one of the sergeants, the other used her taser to immobilize the woman.

The officers got the knife away and tended to her earlier stab wounds. She was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

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Resolved without violence

The woman was looking for the officers to use deadly force on her but instead they worked as a team to resolve the standoff, according to Police Chief Raymond Hayducka.

"This is a case everyone needs to know about because a woman is alive today as a result of the actions of these officers. I also want to recognize the Mayor and Council for the substantial investment they made in purchasing tasers for all our officers. This is the second life that has been saved in an armed standoff with South Brunswick police by the use of tasers."

The woman is expected to make a full recovery, according to Hayducka.

If you feel you or someone you know is in a domestic violence situation, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233), online at TheHotline.org, or the New Jersey Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-572-SAFE (7233).

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