A man is in custody after running from Bellevue Police Thursday morning. During the foot pursuit near 42nd and Highway 370, police say the man jumped into the Papio Creek.
Sergeant Scott Miller says an officer spotted the vehicle the man was driving and tried to stop it. The man, who was threatening to kill himself, got out and began running.
The officer called for a K9 to help search after the man went into the creek. Officers from five agencies converged on the area to search for the man.
They caught a break when Kristen Troelstrep, who lives south of 42nd and Highway 370, spotted the man walking in her neighborhood.
"He had no shirt on, he was all wet and had no shoes on," Troelstrep says. She flagged down an officer and the man was quickly arrested.
Police say a three year old child was left in the vehicle that the man fled from but was not harmed. The man was taken in for a mental evaluation. Police say it’s fairly common to deal with suspects who might be a in a fragile mental state.
“We run into that a lot almost on a daily basis. We find ourselves taking people into custody for protective care,” says Bellevue Police Sgt. Scott Miller.
Sarpy County Sheriff's Lt. Dennis Svoboda says when someone threatens to take their own life, they respond in a different manner. “Naturally you have to always be on guard because you never know what they’re mental status is maybe what they’re contemplating doing. That person, at one moment, can be fairly normal, and then the next moment, the attitude and their demeanor may change and you have to be able to react to those situations.”