A Black River man was attempting 'suicide by cop' when he engaged sheriff's deputies in a lengthy stand-off Sunday night.

That's according to legal papers filed in connection with the arrest of William A. Spears, 38, of Wendell Lane in Black River.

Deputies said Spears was holed up at his Wendell Lane residence when they arrived shortly before 10 p.m..

During negotiations, "William had started telling me...that he was going to let "us" (being the police) kill him and he wanted "us" to shoot him," Detective Paige Taylor said in legal papers.

"William said he would put the garage door up and just walk out and start shooting up in the air so the police would fire upon him and take him out."

"I believed William had consumed alcohol sometime during the evening as his speech was slurred and sometimes not even understandable."

Spears' wife told detectives she had seen him in the garage earlier wih one of his guns and that he told her 'good-bye' and said he was going to kill himself.

Eventually Spears stopped talking, opened the garage door and walked out into the middle of the road. He didn't shoot, but was wearing a bulletproof vest and had a rifle pointed up in the air, Taylor noted.

Spears then went back to the garage, put a shotgun and handgun into his pick-up truck and tried to leave, according to the legal papers.

The sheriff's department's armored vehicle was used to block Spears.

The armored vehicle, a HumVee, was obtained from the military earlier this year. Spears drove his truck into the HumVee, but the operator of the HumVee pushed back, driving Spears' pick-up "back into the yard."

Deputies used 'beanbag rounds' and pepper spray.

Spears was charged with 1st degree reckless endangerment; menacing a police officer; second, third and fourth degree criminal possession of a weapon; and third degree criminal mischief.

One of the criminal possession charges stemmed from Spears having 'numerous large capacity ammunition feeding devices in the form of semi-automatic magazines in excess of 10 rounds,' according to a complaint filed by the sheriff's department.

Spears also had two unregistered handguns, deputies said.

He was arraigned in LeRay town court and committed to jail on $25,000 bail.

Watertown police and state police were also called to the scene.