San Diego

A police officer persuaded a 17-year-old youth who appeared intent on committing suicide not to shoot himself, authorities said.

At 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to a call about a person with a gun. When they arrived in the 7100 block of Jackson Drive in San Carlos, they found a youth sitting on the sidewalk. He was armed with his father’s .357-caliber handgun, said Bill Robinson, a Police Department spokesman.

The teen-ager, who also had a suicide note, was pointing the gun at his stomach, Robinson said.

Officer Evan Ziegler, who has been with the department about three years, talked with the youth for about 40 minutes and persuaded the teen-ager to give up the gun. The youth was “despondent about personal and social problems,” Robinson said.

The teen-ager was taken to the San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital, Robinson said.