On Monday, December 2, 2024, at around 2pm, the Beacon Police said they "received a call for a welfare check on a suicidal female possibly in the area of 1020 Wolcott Avenue,” according to Police Chief Figlia in his press release published on Facebook.
That address is Loopers Plaza, home of All in One Food Mart, Sal’s Pizza, and other businesses. According to an employee of All In One Food Mart who saw the video of the woman and spoke to A Little Beacon Blog, the woman looked to be in her 20s and had come from the direction of Sal’s Pizza into All In One Food Mart. The employee said that they had never seen her before, that she was not a regular customer, but that it did seem like she was dealing with mental health issues.
The employee said that she entered the store by backing in, walking backwards, while holding a knife to her throat as Beacon Police were following her into the store to speak with her. According to the employee, she retreated to the back of the store by the coolers, still with the knife to her throat. An officer circled around to the back of the store, and approached her while she was standing at a food table under the TV in the middle of the store. She eventually put the knife down onto the table, the employee said, put her hands up, and was taken away by Beacon Police.
According to Chief Figlia’s press release:
“Beacon Police as well as our Mental Health America Behavioral Specialist [Lashaveous Dicker] located the individual there and found her calm but incoherent. While they attempted to speak with the individual she produced a kitchen knife from her pocket, held it to her own throat and then slowly retreated into the All In One Food Mart as officers continued to try to talk to her.
“At that point one group of officers evacuated an employee from the store while another entered and continued to try to engage and de-escalate the individual, though she was largely unresponsive. The second group of officers then also engaged with the individual and shortly after she dropped the knife. She was then taken into custody without further incident. At that time, it was discovered that she had what appeared to be a previously self-inflicted wound to her stomach. She was then transported to the hospital by ambulance for medical and mental health evaluation.”
Two weeks after this incident, while ALBB was interviewing the employee for this story, another woman - different from the the subject of this article - who was white was in the parking lot, also being slowly approached by at least two Beacon Police officers, who were trying to talk to her.
