Suspect Dies After Officer Fires Weapon
by Sam Griswold
CBS 42 News
2008-10-12 19:52:26.0
|
|
| |
|
"I don't know the situation or what happened in the house, but, I know you got a man in there dead. This is the second man in less than a month that the police officers have killed, and for what reason?"
Like many other angry neighbors, Marcella Lockett wants answers to what lead to the second officer-involved shooting in two weeks for the Birmingham Police Department. On September 28th, another officer shot and killed a suspect he was chasing on 4th Avenue South, suspected in another crime. Today's incident began with a domestic call to a residence on Avenue J in Ensley.
"Officers entered the residence and discovered a 58-year-old male suspect stabbing a 27-year-old male victim with a barbecue fork. The officer directed the suspect to drop the fork, however, he refused and continued to stab the victim," explains Birmingham Police information officer Lt. Henry Irby.
The officer proceded to fire one shot, hitting the suspect, who was later pronounced dead on the scene by paramedics. The stabbing victim was taken to University Hospital for treatment.
The explanation does little to help neighbors like Lockett: "What we want to know right now... What's going to be done about our people being killed?.... We mad."
"They should be upset about any shooting in which a person has lost life, and we feel the same way. We've had another incident similar to this, however, no incident is the same and we don't like to shoot anybody," says Irby.
Another neighbor who''s also upset is hearing a different story from the victim's wife: "The wife is saying her two sons were fighting. She woke her husband out of bed to break up the fight... Now he's dead and they're trying to say he's stabbing his own son. I don't believe that."
As with the shooting two weeks ago, Birmingham Police have requested the ABI investigate the incident while Birmingham continues with an internal investigation of policy procedures.
|
