MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Police fatally shot a man in Alabama who they say was armed with a knife and ran away from officers who were attempting to detain him.
The shooting happened Tuesday evening in Mobile after an officer stopped a vehicle on a highway following several traffic violations, Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said in a news conference.
A passenger in the car, 37-year-old Edward Nicholas Bittner, got out of the car and fled, news outlets reported. An officer caught up to the man and used a stun gun on him, but he got up and ran again, the chief said. Battiste said the same scenario happened again when a second officer used a stun gun on the man.
Police said the man had refused to drop the knife before he was shot.
“As a result of that, the officers had to resort to deadly force,” Battiste said.
Bittner was pronounced dead at the scene. It wasn’t clear how many officers fired shots, but no police were hurt.
The shooting will be reviewed by the police department’s internal affairs unit, with the Mobile County district attorney’s office overseeing the probe.
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