Can I lend you a hand sir?

A man cut through his arms with saws at a Home Depot in West Covina, shocking employees and customers who saw the grisly scene play out at the busy store, police Wednesday night.

The man calmly walked into the store on Azusa Avenue shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday and grabbed the handsaws, the West Covina Police Department said.

"He just began sawing away," Cpl. Rudy Lopez told The Times. "He was pretty much intent on doing what he did."

The man cut both arms down to the bone as panicked people called 911 for help. The man was passing out as officers arrived, police said.

An off-duty Pasadena paramedic was inside the store and helped the officers round up twine and rags, which they used to fashion tourniquets to stop the heavy flow of blood, Lopez said.

The man was taken to nearby Queen of the Valley Hospital, where he was undergoing surgery. His condition Wednesday night was not immediately known.

Lopez said the store was shut down for the rest of the day.

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Twitter: @LAJourno

robert.lopez@latimes.com http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-75338194/

HAND SAWS!?!? I'd understand that with something with power. But berkeleying HAND SAWS?

Cocaine is a hell of a drug. /Rick James

Not Florida!!!!!!!!

JohnRW1621 wrote: Cocaine is a hell of a drug. /Rick James

bath salts .....

wbjones wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: Cocaine is a hell of a drug. /Rick James

bath salts .....

Crack....

First thing that came to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2x8RhadlpA

Am I the only one having trouble figuring out how you cut your arm down to the bone with a hand saw, then use that same arm to cut the other one?

JThw8 wrote: Am I the only one having trouble figuring out how you cut your arm down to the bone with a hand saw, then use that same arm to cut the other one?

Oh, no. Hardware stores are big on assisting customers.

In reply to JThw8:

cut down to the bone, would mean severed the muscles on side. if when they say "arm" they mean forearm... that would mean he can't let go with that hand, but could still grip... enough to hold a saw.

/end conjecture.

Datsun1500 wrote:

N Sperlo wrote:

JThw8 wrote: Am I the only one having trouble figuring out how you cut your arm down to the bone with a hand saw, then use that same arm to cut the other one?

Oh, no. Hardware stores are big on assisting customers.

He was at Home Depot, not a real hardware store.... Question is still valid

Tee hee heee. You make me LOL.

SCARR wrote: In reply to JThw8: cut down to the bone, would mean severed the muscles on side. if when they say "arm" they mean forearm... that would mean he can't let go with that hand, but could still grip... enough to hold a saw. /end conjecture.

Valid conjecture, but still just the amount of pain (although this was obviously not an issue for this person) to grip and utilize the saw when your arm is already cut....hard to fathom

So if you saw someone cutting their arm off with a handsaw in a store would you just let them go to town waiting for police?

Also excited to see how fast home depot cages all the handsaws

In reply to nocones:

If you saw some nutjob with a handsaw who could withstand the pain of hacking into his arm would I be all excited to jump in and confront them? No not particularly. Especially in a room fool of other potentially sharp tools. I would presume loss of blood would cause him to black out well before there was threat of bleeding to death. Not a medical expert.

Also just thought, getting whacked by a bloody saw is probably going to do some damage. I'm not going to hope that someone in that state has "clean" blood.

"...It got into my hand and it went bad, so I lopped it off at the wrist..."

There should be a waiting period and background check for all saw purchases.

so a power saw would = assault saw

pilotbraden wrote: There should be a waiting period and background check for all saw purchases.

No background check would have prevented this unfortunate tragedy. The saws were not legally obtained. The only solution is to have key store employees armed with saws themselves so as to cut this behavior off before it gets out of hand. --Wayne LaPierre

We should eliminate high capacity saw blades - maybe only 3-4 teeth per inch. The Chinese have also shown there is a real danger with hammers - so it's time to crack down on all construction tools. --Dianne Feinstein

If we don't ban handsaws, mad men will be driving these things through the hallways of our schools, cutting our kids' feet off!

So people in California still find something like this shocking? Good to know.

If we only had better mental health screening it would eliminate anyone from ever cutting themselves with a saw again.

It's clear the government is trying to take our saws away---- leaving us defenseless for the inevitable Tree-Person attack. I need to stock up on blades now......at any moment my home could be attacked by a Tree hoodlum.....or maybe 10, or 20, or an entire forest could attack me and my family at any moment!

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Now there's no more oak oppression

For they passed a noble law

And the trees are all kept equal

By hatchet, axe, and saw.

Secretariata wrote: In reply to Joe Gearin: Now there's no more oak oppression For they passed a noble law And the trees are all kept equal By hatchet, axe, and saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHEcIbhDiw