Harlingen cop kills knife-wielding man
UPDATE: Officials have released more information about the shooting. Click here to read.
HARLINGEN - A Harlingen police officer fatally shot a man who brandished a knife and attacked authorities Monday night.
The man died sometime before 10 p.m at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, hospital spokesman Mike Swartz said. He did not release the man's name.
Police spokesman Dave Osborne said three officers responded to a report of a man lighting a fire under the Expressway 77 overpass near the I-69 bar around 7 p.m. Monday.
When the officers ordered the man in English and Spanish to take his hands out of his pockets, Osborne said, the man pulled a knife and charged the officers. One police officer then fired on the man, wounding him in the upper torso.
Osborne said a preliminary investigation shows that one of the officers fired on the man after he charged at them with the knife.
Police are investigating how many shots were fired.
The police officers called for an ambulance after the shooting. The man was taken to Valley Baptist Medical Center for treatment, Osborne said. No police officers were injured.
Osborne said the man may have been lighting the fire to keep warm but officers had not questioned him. The temperatures at the time of the shooting were high 40s.
The three police officers, who Osborne would not identify, will now go through an internal police investigation about the shooting.
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Allen Essex is a reporter at the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen.
