Marina >> A CSU Monterey Bay police officer was given a notice of termination this week for choosing not to use a stun gun on a student in need of medical treatment following a suicide attempt in February, the officer’s union said Thursday.

The Statewide University Police Association declined to name the officer. A local police chief said the officer could have done more to assist in a crisis, but in a statement, the student’s father praised the officer’s actions.

“With the current public impression and distrust of law enforcement, I think we need to see more officers that choose to conduct themselves peacefully and professionally,” said the CSUMB student’s father, whom the union also did not name.

The decision to possibly terminate the officer for not using excessive force comes after two grand juries in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York found no criminality in the actions of two white police officers for the killing of two unarmed black men.

Although the union says the officer, who is a 20-year law enforcement veteran, was using “civilized methods to resolve a situation” with an injured and noncompliant suicidal victim, Marina police officers who assisted in the call say he “never engaged” in the “highly agitated situation.”

Marina Police Chief Edmundo Rodriguez said officers arrived at the scene to find a bloody room and an agitated victim in need of medical aid. The victim’s sweater, Rodriguez said, appeared to have been burned in an attempt to light himself on fire. A knife and hammer were also in the room, but the student was not holding the weapons when officers responded, Rodriguez said.

The situation needed to be controlled before paramedics could enter the room to assist.

“He was clearly a danger to himself and he was in crisis,” Rodriguez said. “We were trying to keep him from accessing the weapons or leave, to get him medical attention.”

A union official said the officer did not feel it was necessary to use a Taser on the unarmed 150-pound victim who was distraught.

“Our officer did not believe he was any threat at all,” said Jeff Solomon, the union’s president.

“The other officers started yelling and screaming to get down, Tased him multiple times, and from what we understand (told the university officer) to Tase him again,” Solomon said.

But Rodriguez said that at one point the university officer left the room to make a phone call and came back while officers struggled to subdue the student to get him to paramedics

“He (the university officer) never engaged and he just stood there and watched,” Rodriguez said.

It was not until the student tried to run away that the officer used his Taser, Rodriguez said. The student was taken to a hospital for treatment and sustained no serious injuries from the Taser, he said.

University officials did not comment on the details of the case pending a personnel investigation.

In a statement, the school said “the case is much more complex than was conveyed in the (union’s) press release.”

Ana Ceballos can be reached at 726-4377.