MODESTO, Calif. - Diners watched in horror as a man tried to amputate his own arm at a restaurant because he thought he had injected air into a vein while shooting cocaine and feared he would die unless he took drastic action, police said.

Cops said 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into the Denny’s restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he grabbed from a customer’s table.