Watch a Pueblo police officer save a suicidal veteran's life during an intense standoff. He used his experiences as a veteran to relate to him and save him.

Officer Richard Jones handled a standoff with a suicidal veteran in the most exceptional way possible. Officer Jones responded to the call of a man sitting outside of a building with a handgun in March of 2018 in Pueblo. As he approached the man, he came toward Officer Jones with a gun in his hand.

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As you can see below, Officer Jones raises his gun and tells the man to drop his weapon and put his hands up. The man wasn't looking or talking to anyone and as he's surrounded by officers pointing their guns at him, Officer Jones uses his training as a crisis intervention instructor and experience as a veteran to relate to the man.

He noticed the man had a sweater on that indicated he was a veteran so Officer Jones tells him 'I am a vet. Drop the weapon! Dude, don't do it to another vet! Don't do it to me.' The man responds to the officer stating he wants to die and there's no help for his condition and screams 'just shoot me!.'

Officer Jones keeps telling the man to let him help him, and that they've lost too many veterans already, all while the man still has a gun in his hand at his side. Then, the man puts both hands on the gun, as if he's going to raise it and shoot, which you can see in the video below.

But after 11 minutes of pleading with the man, he finally put the weapon down and Officer Jones broke down in tears. He was so relieved that a fellow veteran didn't take his own life that he hugged him and told him 'I'm going to get you some help, we're going to start right now.'

Officer Jones says that he's very thankful that he was there that day. He's thankful for the experiences he's had that brought him there, which allowed him to connect to the man and ultimately ended the standoff. Veterans can connect with each other in a way that no civilian ever could. We're so thankful for Officer Jones and all of our amazing veterans and police officers.

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