Thank you so much for your response.
1) I am not able to do that as for some weird reason the keyboard keys are not registering. I can open the Finder window, put cannot click anything. I have attached a screen recording for your viewing.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VddLPYFKVIzU2Kiz8p5N9Gl09X5R1coO/view?usp=drivesdk
I even tried opening Terminal to stop finder or execute Shutdown command. Since the system will not allow me to type, I wrote the command in another Mac device so that using the Mac's Universal Handoff feature I could copy it there and paste it on the machine with problem. I did that, but could not execute it because it will not let me press Enter as in the screen recording.
2) I had already tried this as well. I even went into the Disk Utility and ran First Aid. Tried restarting from safe mode, tried shutting down from safe mode and starting normally. Tried selecting the target disk to start in etc.
No joy at all. This has happened before and I was able to solve it by resetting the SMC I think. Now nothing works.
I don't understand what the problem is. I feel like if I can manage to shutdown or restart the Mac without having to force shutdown by using the power button, this issue will be resolved. Given the situation, how can I shut down or restart the Mac?