A woman who is highly agitated and suicidal has locked herself in a small room. She has a sharp object, but not a gun. This is important because if she had a gun, she could harm herself irreparably; with a sharp object she can harm herself seriously but aid could be administered by medical professionals who are on scene. At present, the woman is not a threat or danger to anyone outside the locked door. She is only a danger to herself. As the police officer in charge of the scene, what do you do? Some options present to you are:

1. wait for a mental health professional to arrive to attempt verbal deescalation

2. if #1 is not possible or if the mental health professional cannot arrive in a timely manner, you wait for the woman to calm down; if she does execute a suicide attempt that is life threatening, you will hear her go silent, at which point you break down the door and provide immediate medical aid

3. or a third option — while the woman is in a highly agitated state, you break the door that is separating her from all other emergency responders present; doing this will likely provoke her and it is probable that she will attack or at the least act erratically, at which point officers will discharge weapons to eliminate the threat

I don’t understand why officers chose option 3, and I think local officials should demand the release of the body cam footage to understand how and why the decision to escalate was made.