Brigham City officers Monday recalled years of complaints and threats from a local resident who ended his life after carrying three guns onto a schoolyard.

Brigham City police learned they could usually talk Ron Jensen out of potentially volatile situations. Until last Friday.Armed with a hunting rifle and a set of holstered pistols, Jensen walked onto the playground at Foothill Elementary School Friday night to retrieve the socks of his girlfriend's daughters. After threatening a teacher, a 10-year-old boy and an officer, Jensen placed the rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He died instantly.

Ken Broadhead, a Brigham City patrolman summoned with two other officers by reports of an armed gunman walking in the playground, was within 10 feet of Jensen when the 48-year-old shot himself.

"I never came so close to shooting someone," said Broadhead.

Jensen had become well-known to police because of his frequent threats against local officials and neighbors. For example, he called dispatchers March 31, said Police Chief Charles Earl, "to say he could kill us all just by rolling grenades down the steps" of the police station.

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"We'd always been able to talk him out of things before," Earl said. "Kenny (Broadhead) said he didn't see it in his eyes that he was serious until the last minute. He was just 2 feet too short to make that short lunge."

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