Man’s meltdown momentarily causes shutdown at 9th and C

Around 5:30 p.m. last Friday, police flooded the intersection at Ninth St. and Avenue C, responding to a call about an emotionally disturbed person. Yellow police tape was quickly strung up between trees and poles around street corners, to keep onlookers out of the intersection. According to Deputy Inspector Dennis De Quatro, Ninth Precinct commanding officer, an 18-year-old man under doctor’s care for emotional problems wouldn’t take his medication and was “acting irrationally,” and his parents called 911. When police — including heavily armed Emergency Service Unit officers — arrived, the man locked and barricaded himself inside his room. Police removed the man from the building in a straitjacket-like device and on a gurney, above, and took him to Bellevue Medical Center for observation. Although there were rumors that the man had a gun, De Quatro said he had been unarmed.