Man huffing inhalants in store parking lot will face charges

Police officials indicate that a local man seen openly huffing inhalants in a store parking lot will face charges once his mental status has been evaluated.

An officer with the Lawrenceburg Police Department was summoned to Dollar General located at 1906 West Gaines Street, just prior to 4:00 p.m. on New Year’s Day. An employee reported that she had been outside and witnessed the incident. She told him that after the man finished huffing the inhalants, he passed out behind the wheel of his car.

The officer reports that the twenty-eight year old man was slumped over in the driver’s seat with two cans of compressed air, used for such purposes as dusting electronics, in each hand. His repeated attempts to rouse the man were unsuccessful. When the man finally did respond, the officer reports that he “looked up with squinted eyes and was very confused.” The officer asked him to roll down his window or open the car door, but he reports that the man placed the compressed air nozzle to his mouth and began to inhale, once again.

The officer was able to persuade the man to open the car door after a time. He reports that he exhibited signs of being highly intoxicated, was confused by his surroundings and circumstances, and had urinated on himself. He reports that field sobriety tests were not administered due to his level of intoxication because “it was too dangerous to risk him harming himself while trying to perform the physical tasks.”

The man agreed to a standard blood draw at Southern Tennessee Regional Health Systems. Once there, he confessed to the officer that “he had tried to huff himself to death with the air dusters.” He said that “he wanted to kill himself due to some personal problems he was having.”

Officer relinquished custody of the man to the hospital’s Crisis Suicide Prevention Team for further evaluation. The reporting officer indicated in his report that he would seek charges against him including driving under the influence of an intoxicant and illegal use of inhalants.