On Feb. 5, Seattle Police reported that they spent hours working to convince a man to come out of his home after he had eaten hallucinogens and assaulted his mother.

The incident happened at the 9200 block of Eighth Avenue Northwest at around 10 a.m. that Thursday morning.

Police reported that the man was in his late twenties and that judging by the man’s “babble,” they believed him to have eaten psilocybe containing mushrooms.

Det. Drew Fowler with SPD reported, “It was indicated he had eaten mushrooms, but we don’t know for certain. We believe it may have been mushrooms because it was mentioned in some of his babbling --- that was one thing that gave us a clue.”

The National Drug Institute reports that users ingest the mushroom after ingesting them whole or in a tea. The effects of psilocybin appear 20 minutes after ingestion and last approximately six hours. Users describe spiritual insight, the “giggles” and a sense of euphoric complacency, as wells visual and other sensory hallucinations and distortions. They can also cause profound fear, loathing and hysteria arising from prolonged paranoia.

Indeed, Fowler said that the man definitely exhibited many of these effects, especially delusional paranoia. Some of his delusions caused him to make distressing phone calls to his mother, which spurred her to go to his house. After his mother was there he began making phone calls to the police claiming she was going to kill him. The man became even more erratic and violent. He told police he was going to kill his mother. He later assaulted her. She called police, and then fled the scene, fearing for her safety.

She told police that the man had access to knives.

When police arrived they asked the man to come out of the house but the man refused.

SPD negotiators tried several times to coax the man out, but finally decided to enter the home and arrested the suspect.

Fowler said the man was not violent when they entered the home.

“We had to enter the house to get him, but there was no fight, and we actually took him into custody while he was lying on his bed.”

Officer Fowler said that if the man had not assaulted his mother there would have been a different end to the incident.

“Sometimes in the veil of people having drug-induced issues or mental issues, you can strike a chord with them and work it out, but in this case he wasn’t cooperating,” said Fowler. “If he had not assaulted his mom we probably would have let him be for a while and sent an officer to file a report; but because there was an assault, we had to make a point to take him into custody to keep the family safe.”

Fowler reported that other substances and mental issues, combined with a suspect being unwilling to cooperate, would elicit the same tactical response from SPD.

“In a way, the drugs were irrelevant. They may have been a factor in his poor decision-making, but the fact of the matter was there was an assault. If there were no assault there would have changed the circumstances.”

The man was booked at King County Jail for misdemeanor domestic violence/assault. No other drugs were found in the man’s home.