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Woman shows up to police HQ with gun
Clarkston Police is being praised for the way officers were able to handle a bizarre situation at headquarters Tuesday morning. They say a woman with mental health issues showed up in the parking lot armed with a gun.
CLARKSTON, Ga. - Sgt. Dustin Bulcher spotted a woman, who had a gun in her hand, as he pulled up to headquarters for work Tuesday morning.
Surveillance cameras captured Mia Cooper walking through Clarkston Police Department's parking lot Tuesday morning.
Sgt. Bulcher quickly assessed the situation.
"As I pulled in right here, I saw her walking around the corner. She had the handgun in her hand," Bulcher said.
"It looked like she was coming to check around these doors," said Sgt. Bulcher. "At that time, I notified my patrol officers to come out and make contact with her. When we went to make contact with her, she sat in one of these forklifts we have over here."
Department personnel are trained on how to interact with people with mental health issues.
"Her demeanor was nonchalant. There was no communication or talking a lot. There was just ‘yes’, ‘no’, really no communication, conversation," Bulcher said. "Officers tried to get her to discard the firearm. She refused. We had officers make a rapport with her and talk with her. Throughout that process we were able to distract her, and we had an officer able to use non-lethal force and tase her and take her into custody without incident."
The woman, who lives in Decatur, told officers she walked to the police station.
"We didn't feel like we were in danger. This is something we do every day. So, it all turned out to be a good ending," Sgt. Bulcher said. "I'm just glad we were able to handle the situation the way we did without any horrible outcome."
Police said they have had no prior interactions with her.