Hatchet-Wielding Man Arrested Outside Macomb County Restaurant: Police

STERLING HEIGHTS, MI — A hatchet-wielding man was arrested outside a Sterling Heights restaurant last week after officers used rubber bullets on the man, according to police.

Police said the man was having a mental health crisis and swinging a hatchet or axe-like weapon inside the Fuddrucker's restaurant on Van Dyke Avenue and 18 Mile Road last Friday at roughly 12:15 p.m.

An officer's body camera video shows officers approaching the man outside the restaurant and telling him to drop the weapon. The man refused officers' repeated commands and threatened himself and the officers, according to police.

That's when officers shot the man with rubber bullets from a non-lethal weapon, according to police.

Officers then arrested the man and took him to a nearby hospital for a mental evaluation, according to police.

"The individual, who was clearly suffering from mental illness, was transported to the hospital for a mental petition," Sterling Heights police said in a statement. "Due to the outstanding job by our officers, a very dangerous situation was controlled and no one was hurt. Furthermore, the subject obtained much-needed treatment at the hospital."