Man having “mental crisis” tased in metro mall, customers mistake Taser sound for gunshots

An incident at Southlake Mall involving police caused quite a scare for shoppers.

Morrow police said at 2:53 p.m., officers went to Southlake Mall about a disturbance. When they got to the mall, they came across a man who they said may have been having a mental health crisis.

Police said the man, identified as Darius Dixon, 31, was making threats to “shoot the place up” while acting like he was armed.

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Officers said they made contact with Dixon at the upper entrance of a Macy’s inside the mall. Dixon reached for something in his waistband while covering his mid-section with a shoebox. That’s when an officer started giving him orders to drop the box and show his hands as the officer pointed a taser at him.

Police said Dixon did not follow the officer’s orders, so the officer smacked the box out of Dixon’s hands and tased him. Dixon was then taken into custody.

Due to the loud pops of the Taser, customers inside and near Macy’s thought someone was shooting and ran out of the store.

Police said customers were assured that they were safe and they re-entered the store.

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Police said a miscommunication resulted in a shots fired call and caused multiple agencies to respond to the mall. Morrow police told dispatch that there were no gun shots fired and they’d only requested more officers for crowd control.

According to police, Dixon is facing two counts of Terroristic Threats, one count of Simple Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, and two counts of Obstruction--failure to comply with initial verbal commands and then resisting arrest after being tased.

While police were interviewing the suspect about the incident, Dixon spat in an officer’s face.

Police provided a photo of Dixon, who now has dreadlocks. He is currently being held at the Clayton County Jail.

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