A call for help at about 8:10 a.m. Thursday sent more than a dozen officers to the southern edge of the city on Ajax Road searching for a man believed to have a rifle and a female hostage.

Dispatch said it was a possible domestic violence case at 4716 Ajax Road and that the man had taken a woman out into a nearby fields, said Sgt. Kevin Cummings, a supervisor with the St. Joseph Police Department.

Later, officers learned that the man was distraught and had threatened to harm himself, said Capt. Kevin Castle, a police spokesman. The woman had gone out in the field to try and keep the man from hurting himself, Mr. Castle said. He won’t be charged and has been taken for a psychiatric evaluation, he said.

Police don’t release names when no charges are being considered.

Marshall White can be reached at

marshall@npgco.com.