ST. LOUIS – One suspect was killed and one puppy was hurt after St. Louis police responded to a mental health crisis Wednesday afternoon, a situation that also resulted in gunfire.

Investigators say this all unfolded at a building in the 5700 block of Oakland Avenue, in the Cheltenham neighborhood directly south of Forest Park.

According to Major Janice Bockstruck of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, police responded to a report of a suspect who appeared to be having a mental health crisis and was walking around the office with a young puppy, sitting in different people’s chairs and desks.

After that, SLMPD officers arrived at the scene and confronted the presumed suspect. Moments later, the suspect produced a knife and began stabbing his small dog, according to Bockstruck.

One officer, attempting to intervene, deployed a taser to stop the suspect from stabbing the puppy any further. The taser was ineffective, and the suspect broke free of the taser, going down to the stairwell to the second floor. At that location, he sat down.

At some point, police say the suspect also began to stab himself in the neck.

An officer found the suspect on the second floor in a hallway and confronted the suspect, though he allegedly refused orders to drop the knife. Instead, he reportedly went to a standing from a seated position in possession of the knife.

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According to Bockstruck, the officer felt his life was endangered and discharged his firearm after seeing numerous violent action just moments before.

At that point, the suspect was sent to the hospital and pronounced deceased. The puppy was rushed to the Humane Society, and police believe the puppy will survive.

No officers were injured in the incident.

Police did not disclose the suspect’s cause of death, but noted he suffered a gunshot wound, along with a self-inflicted stab wound.

Bockstruck said all department officers undergo training to help deescalate situations involving distressed individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. In this case, Bockstruck said the officer who responded had counseling experience as well.

“Our officers go through what we call CIT, crisis intervention training, and they do have a lot of training in that field,” she said. “We tried to deescalate, but it didn’t work, unfortunately.”

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