Officers in Berks County relied on their training and turned what could have been a deadly force incident into peaceful resolution of a hostage situation.
The entire scene was caught on surveillance camera.
"We got a call to go to a convenience store for the report of a man in the back seat of a car with a knife to his neck,” said Sgt. Joel Marino of the Muhlenberg Police Department.
Initially, officers thought it was a suicide, but they determined that was not the case when they arrived.
"When the person in the back of the car with the knife to his neck saw the police arrive, he pulled out another knife and put it to the neck of the front seat passenger,” Marino said.
The officers decided they had to skip the negotiation process and act quickly. They surrounded the car and smashed the right-rear window and stunned 25-year-old suspect Marshall Sutphen.
The officers then dragged Sutphen out of the car to keep him from stabbing the passenger in the front seat.
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"When he was Tased, an officer ran around to the front of the car, grabbed the front seat passenger, pulled him out of the car to get him away from the danger,” Marino said.
The victim suffered a minor cut to his neck.
Marino praised his officers for relying on their training to avert a disaster.
"Our officers did a great job of saving two lives that day, the driver of the car and the suspect. Because it would have been very easy for them to have used deadly force,” Marino said.
Sutphen is facing Aggravated Assault and Reckless Endangerment charges and was held on $100,000.
