Atlanta, GA 12/21/2010 12:12:07 AM
Cigarette suicide
A US man is suing police for over $400,000 after his cigarette break was mistaken for a suicide attempt by two officers.
Mark Moody was having a smoke on the window ledge of his New York apartment when two policeman got out of their car and asked if he was planning to kill himself before ordering him to come downstairs.
When Mark refused, saying he was just having a cigarette, the officers burst into the apartment, grabbed and restrained him before taking him to a psychiatric hospital.
A police spokesman man said the officers were responding to an emergency call from an “emotionally disturbed person” who was in that area and assumed it was Mark.
