San Rafael police closed a busy intersection for about five hours Monday during a standoff with a bleeding woman brandishing two large kitchen knives.
The standoff started at about 12:15 p.m. in a parking lot near Francisco Boulevard East and Medway Road in the Canal area. At one point the woman advanced toward police, who repelled her with a non-lethal “bean bag shotgun,” said San Rafael police Sgt. Justin Graham.
Negotiations between the woman and the San Rafael-Novato Regional Crisis Response Unit took most of the afternoon. At about 5 p.m., when the woman was momentarily distracted, police rushed in to detain her, Graham said.
The woman was treated for her injuries and placed under a mental health hold. The police department did not release her name.