A man who had been issued a Florida mental health warrant Facebook live-streamed a dramatic four-hour stand off with police, while he hid in his house wielding a gun.
Tampa police were called to Adam Mayo’s property on May 9 after his mother became concerned for his safety, a spokesman told Mail Online.
Judy Mayo had alerted police after her son had told her he had stopped taking his psychiatric medication and had sent her photos of a gun.
Adam Mayo, 35, is known to police, who have been called to his house on several occasions, Tampa police spokesman Stephen Hegarty told Mail Online.
Two Tampa officers arrived at the house on E Jean Street, Tampa, on a Baker Act warrant at around 3 pm that day.
The Baker Act is also known as the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, which allows the involuntary institutionalization and examination of an individual.
After noting green laser marks coming from a window of Mayo’s home – which indicates that someone is likely pointing a weapon – the officers called for back up.
A TRT practical response swat team then arrived on the scene but Mayo refused to come out.
From inside his darkened home Mayo shouts over the barking of his three dogs: ‘Yeah, you better call for backup!’
He adds: ‘They seriously don’t get it. They say you have to go talk to a doctor about medication’.
Mayo then zooms into a container of cannabidiol, a chemical found in cannabis plants that is used for therapeutic purposes.
Throughout the standoff, Mayo insists that CBD is the only drug he needs.
The police negotiator repeatedly tells Mayo that no-one wants to hurt him and that they just want him to come out.
At one point, Mayo uses the barrel of his black handgun to part the curtain and shouts to police: ‘Miss, you got a body bag ready? I know you got your guns drawn! I’m going to start shooting if you don’t leave!
‘You’re not taking me nowhere! I’m not willing to shoot an officer unless you try to come take me!’
A sound of breaking glass is then heard as police fire a tear gas canister through his window. Mayo screams and a gunshot is heard.
He shouts: ‘Okay, I’m surrendering! I’m surrendering! Can you relax?’
But more breaking glass is heard as more gas canisters break through the windows. He screams again and retreats into the bathroom.
Mayo tells the camera: ‘Stop, please, please! I told you I put the gun down! I got pets in here, you … bastards!’
He adds: ‘Listen, man, y’all need to relax out there! You broke my window, and I pulled the trigger, didn’t I? I don’t want to shoot nobody.’
In the final video post, Mayo seems to have calmed down as he asks the negotiator to apologize.
He opens the front door and films the driveway where a dozen SWAT members stand next to a BearCat with guns pointed at him.
Mayo is then handcuffed and put into the back of a patrol car.
As well as his Facebook friends, Tampa police had also been watching his livestream videos.
But Hegarty told Mail Online that the videos were ‘not of tremendous benefit’.
Hegarty said: ‘It gave us an idea of where he was in the house and that he had a gun. But we knew both those things already.
‘Any extra intelligence is always beneficial but this was no great advantage.’
Mayo’s mother Judy told Tampa Bay online: ‘When he’s taking his medicine, he’s kind, decent, intelligent and loving.
‘But he starts to believe he doesn’t need the medication and stops taking it.’
Mayo was taken to a secure psychiatric unit for evaluation but was not given any criminal charges.
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