Police use Taser on distraught youth

WHITBY -- Police used a Taser to subdue a teenager who had armed himself with knives and a baseball bat Wednesday afternoon in Whitby.

The youth, apparently distraught over a recent breakup, suffered a self-inflicted knife wound during the drama, which began at his family's home and ended nearby in his northwest Whitby neighbourhood, Durham police said.

Officers were dispatched to an address in the Rossland Road West - McQuay Boulevard area around 3:30 p.m. after a report that the 17-year-old had assaulted a family member and then left the residence with a bat and two large knives. Cops arriving on scene found the bat embedded in the windshield of a truck parked in the driveway.

The youth was located on Resolute Crescent near the entrance of D'Hillier Park and refused to drop the knives, instead yelling profanities at officers who approached him, police said. The stand-off continued in a nearby residential driveway where the young man raised a knife and cut himself in an apparent attempt to stab himself in the head.

An officer closed in and deployed a Taser to apprehend the youth, who suffered a minor laceration. He was detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital.