Suicidal man in motorhome dies after standoff

A standoff with an elderly man threatening suicide ended with the man firing at cops and dying by gunfire, according to law enforcement.

On Wednesday morning at around 8:50 a.m., the Colorado River Indian Tribes Police Department and La Paz County Sheriff’s Department responded to the Lazy D mobile home park in Parker, AZ after a call about a man threatening suicide. When they arrived they found Jay Nesbit, 78, in a state of mental distress in his motorhome with a firearm. He had been suffering serious medical issues.

Over the course of approximately 3 hours officers tried to talk Nesbit into giving up the gun, without success. At one stage, according to law enforcement, FaceTime was used for visual communication while keeping cops at a safe distance, according to Captain Curt Bagby at the Sheriff’s Department.

“We didn’t want to be in the motorhome with him while he had a firearm in his hand,” he told Parker Live.

One consideration was the continued threat to nearby residents, according to Bagby.

“It got into the afternoon and we knew that children would start getting off school and coming home,” he said. “The chance of something going badly wrong gets higher and higher, and we had law enforcement lives to worry about too, as well as other residents.”

When Nesbit got more aggressive, it was determined that the use of a taser would be the best way to attempt to take control of the situation, end the standoff and hopefully take him into safe custody.

But the taser did not fully incapacitate Nesbit. According to law enforcement he turned around and fired a single shot from a .22 caliber pistol at the cops, narrowly missed, and was shot by deputies. He was transported to hospital where he later died.

Yuma County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to investigate the officer-involved shooting, as is routine. No officers were harmed.