ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Law enforcement in the Albuquerque metro say they are seeing a disturbing trend in their recent interactions with suspects – more of them are reportedly threatening to take their lives.

In early November, Bernalillo County deputies responded to a SWAT standoff in the North Valley when a man barricaded himself in his car. Hours later, a BCSO deputy ended up shooting and killing the man.

Not even two weeks later, APD responded to a shoplifting call at the Kohl’s near Cottonwood Mall. After a chase through Cold Stone Creamery and onto Alameda, police caught Monica Montoya while still trying to negotiate with another suspect, Pete Martinez.

“He’s already told me, we already had this talk,” Montoya told police. “Either he is going to shoot himself or have you guys shoot him.”

Video released by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Martinez putting a gun to his head. Moments later, APD officers shot and killed him.

“Officers are increasingly encountering individuals who, for whatever reason, are armed with a firearm and threatening themselves. This is a thing we are seeing more and more of,” said Matt Dietzel with APD’s Crisis Intervention Division.

So how are police handling these mental health situations?

“Beginning this year, we are going to train on that scenario specifically and give officers an additional tool to try to use in that situation,” Dietzel said.

APD’s Crisis Intervention Division is trying to draw the line between people who are suicidal as a result of a mental health diagnosis and someone who is reacting to being in a situation with police.

“You’ll hear things like I want to die. My life is over. Do I believe that person is suicidal? No, do I believe they’re overwhelmed by the situation? Absolutely,” Dietzel said. “So there’s kind of a line that we’re trying to draw as a department here between, you know, active suicidality as a result of a mental illness. And kind of that, I’m overwhelmed by the situation.”

While those lines can be blurry, they hope the additional training will decrease the number of these deadly situations.

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen says deputies have been outfitted with new Axon body cameras that give them access to interpreters and mental health professionals on site. They are also looking into the latest tasers and non-lethal tools to de-escalate situations.

Aside from technology, they also want to improve their crisis intervention training.

“The amount of Crisis Intervention Team advanced deputies that we have – we’ve gone pretty much from very few, I want to say we are approaching 40%,” Allen said. “Eventually, I want every deputy to be advanced in that area. That takes time and that is part of the de-escalation that we were talking about.”