KEY POINTS

  • A sword-wielding man was killed by a Detroit police officer after refusing to drop his bladed weapons
  • Detroit's police chief said the suspect continued to move forward at the officers despite several warnings
  • The man even managed to hit an officer under his right eye with an 8-inch bladed weapon
  • The suspect was struck with a Taser but it didn't take effect due to his "protective covering over his torso"
  • An officer eventually shot the suspect using his service firearm

A police officer shot and killed a man who brandished a huge sword and throwing knives in the middle of the street in Detroit late Thursday, July 30.

Detroit police Chief James Craig told the Detroit News the incident happened around 7:15 p.m. near Grand River and Meyers. Officers arrived at the scene and approached the man who was at the time wildly swinging a “32-inch sword.”

The man rushed toward the officers as soon as they got out of their vehicle. The officers asked him to drop the weapon, but he refused. Instead, the suspect “continued to advance,” Craig said.

Detroit Police
Police in Detroit are searching for a group of men who brutally attacked two young couples on the city's northwest side last week. Reuters

At some point during the confrontation, the man took out a second bladed object. He then threw the weapon – an 8-inch dagger - and struck the officer under his right eye. Craig believed that the suspect had three swords and a dagger, Fox News said.

Sensing that the suspect, who the chief said was in his late 20s, would not comply, one of the officers deployed his Taser but it didn't take effect because he was wearing a “protective covering over his torso.”

“I wouldn't call it a bulletproof vest; it was something like what hockey players would wear,” Craig told the Detroit News.

The officer's partner then decided to shoot the suspect using his service firearm. It struck the suspect, but still moved toward the officers and found himself on the driver's side of a patrol car.

Craig said a “Good Samaritan” used his vehicle to “block” the suspect as soon as he jumped into the patrol car, knowing that the officers had weapons inside and that the suspect may have been attempting to get them.

Officers eventually subdued the man where he was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead. The officer who was hit by the bladed weapon was treated at a local hospital for laceration below his right eye, Craig added.

The man's actions made Craig question if he was suffering from mental illness, but one resident said they always see the suspect “dressed in his ninja outfit and swords” but doesn't bother anyone.

“That's why we are wondering what set him off,” Isys Love told the Detroit News.

The incident marked the third police-related fatality this month and the fourth involving the police department.

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