Cpl. C.J. Weekley of the West Virginia State Police prevented the attempted suicide of a Wood County man Tuesday evening.
By Gretchen Richards
Parkersburg News and Sentinel
WALKER, W.Va. — A last-moment rescue by a trooper who acted out of instinct saved the life of a Wood County man who was attempting suicide by hanging Tuesday evening.
The suicide attempt came after a domestic situation, wherein the subject had attacked multiple members of his family and then retreated to a back room with a knife, reports said. The subject’s name is being withheld until he can receive proper mental health treatment, officials said.
A 911 call about a domestic disturbance around 11 p.m. Tuesday summoned Cpl. C.J. Weekley of the West Virginia State Police Wood County Detachment from where he was working on another case at his headquarters.
Weekley said he could hear screaming as he approached the Oak Grove Road home. He opened the door to let himself in, and was greeted by two women running from the back bedroom of the home in a panic, Weekley said.
“One of the women started pushing me to the back of the house, saying her son needed help,” Weekley said.
The women were unable to clearly communicate that the man had hanged himself until Weekley was being pushed through the bedroom door, he said.
The subject was found hanging from the wooden hanger rod in the bedroom closet, Weekley said. He had taken a “two-inch-wide military style belt with D rings” and tied one end around the hanger rod, with the other looped around his neck, Weekley said.
The subject was described as experiencing symptoms of being “within seconds of death” when Weekley pulled out his secondary weapon a four-inch knife and cut the belt between the subject and the hanging rod, Weekley said.
When the subject was resting on the floor, the emergency situation was not over…
