"He came out of his office, cocked a gun, and went back in," his wife told officers, "then I heard a loud boom."
Police in Florida have released dramatic body cam footage of the moment Brad Parscale was apprehended.
Officers were called to the Fort Lauderdale home of the former Trump campaign manager after his wife told them he was armed and suicidal.
The footage shows Candice Parscale outside their upmarket home, wearing just a bikini and towel, telling officers he was "acting crazy" and "going irate".
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View Story"He came out of his office, cocked a gun, and went back in," she said, telling officers "then I heard a loud boom."
One of the officers then gets Brad on the phone, asking if he's okay, before asking if he can do the police a favor by coming out of the house without any weapons. Over the radio, the officer tells colleagues Parscale is refusing to come out.
When police ask his wife if he has a lot of guns in the house, she replies: "I think there are like four or five of them... he has a rifle, he has a shotgun, he has a Glock."
The footage then shows one of the officers approaching the 6'8" Parscale, wearing just a pair of shorts, sat on his porch with a can of beer.
"Listen I'm not trying to kill myself," he tells the officer. "She's lying. I'm your friend."
Parscale walks out of the garden, and the officer tells him to relax and asks him what happened.
"She started saying all this shit..." is as far as he gets before he suddenly realizes he is surrounded by several more police, who have crept around his flank.
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View Story"Hey get on the ground man, get on the ground!" one of the cops orders; when Parscale doesn't immediately comply, he is rugby tackled to the ground.
"I didn't do anything!" he protests as they handcuff him on the ground.
The apprehension was carried out under the Baker Act, a mental health law which allows police to involuntarily commit people to healthcare facilities, if they are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.
After taking him into custody, police confiscated ten firearms in total from the home, NBC reported.
According to the police report, Candice had several large "contusions on both of her arms, her cheek and forehead," and told cops that Parscale had hit her previously; she said he forcibly smacked her phone out of her hand during an argument on Sunday, when she tried to phone his father.
Parscale was Donald Trump's campaign manager for over two years, he was then demoted in July and has been serving as a senior digital adviser.