A suicidal man who repeatedly pointed an unloaded imitation firearm at police during a five hour stand-off had hoped police would shoot him, a court has heard.
Dean Watkins, 31, first pointed the imitation air rifle at officers when they arrived at his home after calling 999 and threatening to drown himself in the bath.
Watkins dialled the emergency number at around 2pm on November 23 last year after unsuccessfully seeking medical attention for mental health problems, Manchester Crown Court heard.
But when police arrived at the house in Salford half an hour later, Watkins pointed what appeared to be an air rifle at the two men.
“Fearing for their lives” the PCs ducked behind a vehicle and armed officers, police negotiators and paramedics were all scrambled to the address on Westminster Street.
Neighbours were told to shelter in their homes and the road was sealed off.
Over the course of five hours Watkins put a knife to his throat, made threats to police, dangled his legs from an upstairs window and tied fabric around his neck threatening to hang himself.
He eventually left the house, was tasered, detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital.
He was later charged with affray and possession of an imitation firearm - offences which he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
Watkins wept as he listened to the facts of the case being laid out to a judge during a sentencing hearing on Tuesday (February 23).
He watched proceedings via videolink from HMP Forest Bank, where he has been on remand since the November incident.
Andrew Smith, defending, told the court that Watkins had been struggling with ongoing mental health problems and asked for leniency for his client.
He said the defendant had sought medical assistance unsuccessfully that day and by pointing a firearm at police had hoped officers may have shot him.
Wakins, of Westminster Street, Salford, has now been jailed for three years.
Prosecutor Kelly Cyples told the court that Watkins called 999 at around 2pm on November 23 and told the operator he was “about to drown himself in a bath”.
Two unarmed police officers arrived at his mother’s home on Westminster Street half an hour later.
When they knocked on the door they could see Mr Watkins asleep on the sofa and he became ‘irate’ on waking, Ms Cyples said.
Watkins appeared at the window with a large butter knife and held it to his neck in a “slicing motion”, though he was not injured, the court heard.
He then appeared at the window again, this time with “a large firearm” which he pointed at the officers banging the barrel on the window.
“Officers had to seek cover behind vehicles,” Ms Cyples said.
Watkins came out of the property, aimed the weapon at officers and went back inside before aiming the weapon at officers out of a window.
Over five hours Watkins 'continuously’ pointed the weapon out of the window and through the letterbox at officers who “heard often the popping sound it makes when it’s being fired but without any ammunition,” the prosecutor said.
He was in an “extremely distressed state” and said he wanted help. But when negotiators pointed out the waiting ambulance he refused to leave the house.
Various family members were brought in to help with negotiations but “failed to change his mindset at the time”, the court heard.
Watkins continued to shout abuse and made threats to harm himself, at one point taking a quantity of tablets.
At another point he tied a red scarf around his neck, attached it to a curtain pole and climbed out of the window threatening to jump.
He told police “You come near me I’ll blow you away” and “Don’t make me get a f***ing gun and shoot you”, Ms Cyples said.
At one point Watkins threw a knife and furniture out of the window before closing the curtains and turning off the lights.
He reappeared over an hour later holding a knife to his throat and climbed out of the bedroom window threatening to jump “at least twice”.
Watkins walked out of the property at 7.45pm holding what police believed was a knife and was tasered by officers.
He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and the following day, after his discharge from hospital, was interviewed by police.
He said he had no memory of the incident and had been struggling with borderline personality disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder.
Watkins told officers he had been hearing voices telling him to kill himself and harm others, felt very suicidal and felt like killing himself.
Ms Cyples said the defendant told police “his intention was to die” and by pointing a gun at officers he had hoped he would be shot.
His mother provided a statement explaining that the imitation weapon, which had belonged to her husband, had been in the house for many years and was kept in a cubby hole with no ammunition in the house.
Andrew Smith, defending Watkins, said it is not uncommon for people marred by mental health issues to find themselves in the criminal system.
He asked for the judge to suspend Watkins ‘inevitable’ custodial sentence so he can deal with his underlying condition.
Mr Smith said Watkins’ problems are ‘exacerbated’ by his addiction to alcohol and recreational drugs - a problem he now recognises following a period of abstinence while on remand.
He added that a police sergeant who had attended the incident that day had dealt with Watkins the previous day when he was on the wrong side of a security fence “on a bridge seeking to kill himself”.
The defendant had been a hospital inpatient just days before the November incident and felt he had been discharged too early, Mr Smith said.
On the day itself, had sought medical assistance unsuccessfully, he added.
“This was, in my view, a cry for help or an attempt in the mind of Mr Watkins to lend himself in a position where he may have been shot by armed police officers,” he said.
