Posted February 19, 2009 EST
Texas - A man was fatally shot by a police officer Tuesday after he lunged at the officer and firefighters with a knife and fire ax, authorities said. The incident began after the Raymondville Volunteer Fire Department was called to a house fire in the 400 block of San Francisco Street, Robert Supulver, a firefighter, said.
"When I arrived on the scene, the firefighters were scattering," Supulver said. "The man had come out of the house with a knife and proceeded toward the fire truck. He grabbed an ax off the fire truck."
"Nobody was in the house," Supulver said. "It was not his house, but he set it on fire."
As the man wielded the two weapons and lunged toward the police officer, the officer fired to protect himself and firefighters, striking the man in the upper torso, Supulver said.
Willacy County Emergency Medical Service Director Frank Torres said the wounded man was taken to Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen. A VBMC spokesman said the man, whose name has not been released by authorities, later died at the hospital.
The contents of the house were destroyed, Supulver said. "It was pretty well gutted," he said.
No one except the man with the weapons was injured during the incident, he said.
Police Chief Uvaldo Zamora did not immediately return telephone calls.
Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence said the last name of the officer who fired is Betancourt.
Written by Valley Morning Star
No comments:
Post a Comment