'I care about you': Virginia Beach Police sergeant explains de-escalation technique during mental health call and last updated 2021-07-28 22:11:01-04 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - It's late on June 29, 2021, when Virginia Beach Police are called to help a man having a mental health crisis. "He was emotional. He was upset; I could feel his hurt," said Sgt. Christopher Washington. "And at the time, he was actually threatening the officers. [He] said he was going to commit suicide by cop. [When I arrived on scene after talking to him on the phone] I was walking through what my options were... what you don't know is there was a hatchet on the ground, so there was a possibility that he could have done something with that."