MODESTO, Calif. — Police say a man tried to cut off his arm at a restaurant because he thought he had injected air into a blood vessel while shooting cocaine and feared that he would die unless he took drastic action.
Authorities said 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into a Denny’s restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he had grabbed from a table.
They said that when the butter knife didn’t work, Lasiter took a butcher knife from the kitchen and dug it into his arm.
Police Sgt. Brian Findlen said Lasiter told officers he thought he needed to amputate his arm to ward off dying from the cocaine injection.
Lasiter was taken to a hospital for treatment of severe cuts.
The Denny’s closed for the night.
