FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Brad Parscale, an advisor and former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, has been involuntarily hospitalized after, officials said, he barricaded himself inside a home in Fort Lauderdale and reportedly threatened to commit suicide.
Fort Lauderdale Police SWAT units responded to a home along the 2300 block of Desota Drive in reference to an armed man attempting to take his own life, at around 3:40 p.m., Sunday.
Investigators said officers found Parscale, 44, intoxicated and acting erratically.
Bodycam footage showed officers ordering Parscale to lie down on the ground outside of his home.
But Parscale, who stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall, remained standing.
Seconds later, an officer is seen tackling Parscale to the ground.
“Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Get on the ground, man!” the officer is heard saying.
“I didn’t do anything!” Parscale shouted over and over.
Parscale’s wife, Candace Parscale, ran out of her waterfront home off Las Olas without a phone. She asked a real estate agent who was showing a property to call 911.
The two women called from the Realtor’s car.
“I have a really nice lady who just came out, and she thinks her husband shot himself inside her house, and she does not want to go back inside,” the Realtor said to the 911 operator.
Audio from the 911 call captured the real estate agent asking Candace about bruises on her arms.
“What are those bruises? Oh, no. Did he do that? Oh, my gosh, your arm, both your arms. Has he been hurting you?” the Realtor said.
Officials said Candace told police those bruises came from an earlier fight with her husband. She also advised them that he was armed, had access to multiple firearms inside the home, was threatening to harm himself and had been drinking.
“I was standing there for hours saying, ‘Give him space. Chill out.’ I look out the window, and then I heard a loud boom,” she is heard telling officers in bodycam video.
According to the police report, “Candace advised after a verbal altercation, Bradley manipulated his slide to the rear, loading his firearm in front of her. Candace immediately fled [the] residence and stated she heard a loud bang shortly after.”
“He was acting crazy, so I went outside to the backyard and let him, like, show off, and then he was going irate,” she said.
The officer who responded to the scene also reported, “I made contact with Candace who stated that Bradley has been stressed out for the past two weeks and has made suicidal comments throughout the week to shoot himself. Candace advised Bradley drinks and he ‘suffers from [post-traumatic stress disorder].'”
Officers determined that Parscale was the only occupant inside the residence. Officers made contact with him and were able to convince him to exit the house.
Officers detained Parscale and confiscated 10 firearms from the house.
“Got any weapons or anything on you?” an officer asked Parscale.
“No, I don’t have any weapons. I didn’t do anything,” he replied.
Parscale was taken to Broward Health Medical Center on a psychiatric hold.
Until July, Parscale was a campaign manager for Trump’s reelection.
Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director, issued a statement Sunday night confirming Parscale is still part of the campaign. It reads in part, “Brad Parscale is a member of our family and we all love him. We are ready to support him and his family in any way possible.”
Fort Lauderdale Police said a victim’s advocate group is reaching out to Candace to see if she would like to press domestic violence charges.
One of Parscale’s neighbors described him as a “good guy,” but she declined to speak on camera.
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