Rubber bullets end standoff

From the Herald (Everett, WA) :

Everett Providence Medical Center, Colby campus, is reopened after a four-hour standoff with an suicidal man in the parking lot ended when police knocked him down by firing rubber bullets.

The hospital was shut down about 4:20 a.m. this morning after police located a Snohomish man just outside the south entrance. The man was armed with a handgun and threatened to kill himself, police said. He had gone to the hospital after he reportedly assaulted his estranged wife at her house in the 6600 block of 133rd Place SE, Snohomish, Everett Sgt. Boyd Bryant said.

The woman fled to a relative's house and was later taken to the hospital for treatment.

Police learned that the man was parked just outside the emergency room entrance at the hospital. Police blocked off the roads and the hospital was locked down. Only critical-care employees were allowed into the building. Ambulances were rerouted to the Pacific campus, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Negotiators spoke with the man off and on, but he refused to surrender. About 8 a.m., police fired off a flash-grenade to distract the man and then shot him twice with rubber bullets. The bullets, about three-inches long, struck the man in the hip and thigh. Officers rushed him and were able to handcuff him. He is being treated at the hospital for injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, Bryant said.