SWAT team responds after man threatens to harm himself in Putnam County

A Putnam County Sheriff's Office SWAT team responded Friday afternoon after an armed man threatened to harm himself, according to deputies.

The incident happened off Bardin and South Providence Church roads in Palatka. The 65-year-old man ran into the woods and climbed into a tree stand with a handgun and shotgun.

Deputies said in a news release that family members followed the man, "but he refused to come down, firing a single shot into the air" and he demanded they leave.

Officers went after the man and tried to talk him down from the tree stand, deputies said.

"Approximately a dozen shots were fired by the subject over a period of several hours after deputies arrived," the release said.

SWAT negotiators were able to talk the man out of the tree stand he put the shotgun aside. However, he still had the handgun and started moving into heavy brush.

The man ended up shooting himself in the shoulder "before putting down the weapon and complying with commands to leave the brushy area," deputies said.

The man was taken to Orange Park Medical Center with an apparent non-life-threatening wound, deputies said.

Cox Media Group