Man's tossing of intestines at police in Hackensack called a cry for help
Friday, June 1, 2012 Last updated: Tuesday June 5, 2012, 5:31 PM
BY JAMES QUIRK AND KAREN SUDOL
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
A Hackensack man who stabbed himself at least 40 times and threw his intestines at police told officers responding to the bizarre scene that he wanted to die and was about to go to heaven, authorities said Friday.
But quick thinking by Bergen County SWAT team members, allowed Wayne Carter, 44, to be brought out of his mother’s Clay Street home alive. He remains in critical condition at Hackensack University Medical Center recovering from his partial disembowelment but is expected to live, Hackensack police Capt. Thomas Salcedo said.
BERGEN COUNTY POLICE DEPT. PHOTO
Wayne Carter, 44, remains in critical condition
Carter, who authorities say has been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment in the past, is an example of a person who has fallen through the cracks in the social safety net and is not noticed until an act of desperation lands him in the headlines. Police deal with the untreated mentally ill and homeless on a regular basis, trying to move them into the appropriate social programs.
Worst they’ve seen
But both Salcedo and the Bergen County Police SWAT team commander, Lt. Michael Devine, said they had never in their long careers encountered anything like the horrific scenario that played out for almost two hours Sunday night.
Police received a call at 10 p.m. from Carter’s brother, who said Carter was threatening to injure himself with a knife. When they arrived at the home in which Carter sometimes resides, Carter had barricaded himself inside his room and blocked the door with furniture.
Hackensack police kicked in the door and found Carter in a corner with a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other, Devine said.
Carter stood up, shouted at the officers, then stabbed his abdomen dozens of times, eviscerating himself, police said. Officers noticed his entrails protruding from a long wound in his abdomen. He then threw intestines and skin at them as they tried to enter the room, police said.
Carter refused to drop the knife and swung it at officers, who used two cans of pepper spray to subdue him, to no avail. The county SWAT team was then called to the scene.
Devine said his officers first used a fire extinguisher spray water on Carter’s face, which had little effect.
“It just sprayed off the blood, and he sat there staring at us,” Devine said.
SWAT officers then fired 13 40mm non-lethal “sponge rounds” at Carter’s thighs and hands, Devine said. Though a single shot from a 40mm sponge round “is like getting hit from a fastball,” Carter did not drop the weapons in his hands.
“He wanted to commit suicide,” Devine said. “He was saying, ‘I’m gonna die today. … I’m sorry, but I’m going to heaven.’Ÿ”
It was then that SWAT officers had to go off the playbook, Devine said. Officers used a 6-foot fire ladder to pin Carter against a wall, and dog snares were used to immobilize Carter’s hands, Devine said. Officers then dived toward Carter, pinned his legs, and handcuffed him. SWAT doctors and paramedics quickly took over.
“Wayne is alive today because of what they did,” Devine said. “From 15 seconds after he was in handcuffs, paramedics and a medical doctor were already treating him. They went right to work. It was about four minutes from handcuffs to the hospital door.”
Contrary to widespread accounts circulating online about the incident, police found no indication that Carter had used bath salts or any other substance, but the possibility of drug use is still under investigation, Devine said.
Carter has not been charged in the incident, Salcedo said.
“Something like this is beyond bizarre,” said Hackensack interim Police Chief Tomas Padilla. |
