Male receives psychiatric care

A male was shot with a sponge round – a strong blow to the body without penetration – by BPD officers Sunday after threatening to kill himself at Country View Apartments, Lt. David Drake said, reading from a police report.

The man was holding an Airsoft gun in the shape of a Walther 9-millimeter, Drake said, and he was reported to have wanted the police to shoot him.

At about 3:06 p.m., the man called BPD on two separate occasions from the Country View Apartments on South Rockport Road to issue a noise complaint.

When police arrived, the man refused to believe they were real police officers, despite being in police uniform, Drake said. Officers could not find any noise violation.

At about 5:07 p.m., the same man was seen standing in his underwear in the apartment parking lot holding what looked like a black handgun, Drake said.

The man refused to talk with police negotiators, and Monroe County’s Critical Incident Response Team was called to the scene.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the man walked toward the officers. After refusing to drop his weapon, an officer shot him with a 40-millimeter sponge that hit him in the shoulder, Drake said.

The man suffered bruises and a cut where he was hit.

The man was taken in an ambulance to Bloomington Hospital, where he received a psychiatric evaluation.