Man taken into custody after threat on officer

ELKINS -- A death threat made toward a patrolman with the Elkins City Police Department led to the Mountain Region Special Response Team being called to take an individual into custody, officials said.

A call to police dispatch on Aug. 25 alerted officers that a male individual had allegedly made a threat to kill both Sheriff Rob Elbon and himself, according to a release from the Randolph County Sheriff's Office.

Police issued a mental hygiene petition about the individual so that officers could pick up the subject for an evaluation and possible hygiene hearing, according to the release. A mental hygiene pickup order was then issued by the Randolph County Magistrate Court.

"We had the option of charging the individual criminally or do a mental hygiene order on the subject," Elbon told The Inter-Mountain Monday. "We chose to go the mental hygiene route and we started planning on how we were going to pick him up."

Because the individual had threatened law enforcement and his own life, officials chose to have the Mountain Region Special Response Team proceed to the individual's residence. The subject was taken into custody in the roadway next to his home as he approached the residence in a vehicle, the release stated. The subject was taken into custody without incident and a mental hygiene hearing was scheduled by the magistrate's office.

"The subject wasn't at the residence once we arrived, but we found out that he was on his way there," Elbon said. "When the subject went to pull in the driveway, we met him there and took him out of the vehicle peacefully and without incident."

After the mental hygiene hearing, Elbon said the subject was sent to a mental facility for evaluation and treatment. Elbon also said it was later determined that it was not the sheriff that the subject had threatened to kill, but his son, N.G. Elbon, of the Elkins Police Department.

"Once everything came out in the open, we found out who the actual threat was made on," Sheriff Elbon said. "We are just happy that the incident was diffused and that nobody was hurt."