Last modified: Friday, September 7, 2007 1:19 AM EDT Taser averts city suicide BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - A city police officer using a Taser gun prevented a suicidal woman from slicing her stomach open with a razor knife at the group home where she lives, police said Thursday. The 50-year-old woman had called 911 about 1 a.m. Wednesday and told a dispatcher she had just cut her wrist, Detective Lt. John Otrando said. When the dispatcher learned the wound was self-inflicted, the woman turned irate and threatened to harm herself further if police came, Otrando said. "She said, 'I'll slit my throat. I'll slit my throat'," Otrando said. When officers arrived at the group home, the 300-pound woman came from behind her door, bleeding from the arms and hands, Otrando said. The woman held a purse in her right hand and the razor knife in her left hand when she confronted officers Gilbert Bechtel, Edward Gingras and Larry Velino, Otrando said. The woman dropped the purse and then lifted her shirt before raising the blade up, Otrando said. "She brought the blade up and attempted to slice her stomach with the razor knife," Otrando said. Before the woman was able to cut her self again, Bechtel fired his Taser at the woman, Otrando said. Taser guns fire barbs connected by a wire that inflict an electronic shock, temporarily disabling the intended target. Attleboro police have had them since last June and have used them successfully, Otrando said. In September last year, police used a Taser on a 44-year-old suicidal woman who threatened to kill herself and threatened officers with a knife. The woman involved in Wednesday's incident was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital for the self-inflicted wounds and for a mental crisis evaluation, Otrando said. She was not charged with any crime because she did not threatened police, Otrando said.