A Highland Park police officer used a BolaWrap device to disarm a 24-year-old woman holding a knife during a mental health crisis.
Officer Javom Odom, a Crisis Intervention Officer, responded after police received reports that the woman had been harming herself with a knife. The woman was upset over a family argument and told officers she had celebrated her 24th birthday the day before. Bodycam footage captured her saying she wanted to die as officers repeatedly asked her to drop the knife.
Odom deployed a BolaWrap, a device that fires a cord to restrain a person. The woman dropped the knife and was taken into custody. Similar encounters involving armed individuals have ended in officer-involved shootings.…