NEWS RELEASE
TIMMINS POLICE SERVICE
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The Timmins Police Service received a call of a disturbance in the area of Seventh Avenue and Toke Street in Timmins at approximately 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
The complaint centered on a distraught individual who apparently was acting irrationally.
That same person was observed a short time later walking fully dressed into Gillies Lake, just off of Lakeshore Drive.
A number of officers with the Timmins Police Service responded to the call for service along with EMS paramedics and Timmins Fire Department personnel.
The male subject had managed to make his way approximately 30 feet from the shoreline when police located him. Based on their training and effective verbal interaction with the distraught person, police were able to dissuade the man from further attempts to harm himself.
The officers used tactical communication to convince the male party to return closer to the shoreline.
Some of the officers found it necessary to remove their police-issued equipment and enter the water in order to better offer assistance to the man. They managed to take necessary physical control of the man and pulled him out of the water for his own safety and wellbeing.
The male subject was apprehended under the provisions of the Mental Health Act and was transported to the Timmins and District Hospital by ambulance for a thorough assessment by a physician. At present, the man remains under the care of the Mental Health Unit.
The Timmins Police Service is thankful to those members of the public who rendered assistance by providing details to responding officers and by complying with direction given to them by the police in order to better allow them to respond to the needs of the person requiring assistance.
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