A Prince William County police officer shot and killed a man who had a knife at a fire and police station complex. News4’s Julie Carey reports.
A police officer shot and killed a man who authorities say was armed with a knife outside a police and fire station complex in Woodbridge, Virginia, early Thursday morning.
The shooting happened just after 5 a.m. in the parking lot behind the Department of Fire and Rescue Station 26, which is right next to the Central District Police Station on Davis Ford Road, the Prince William County Police Department said.
It was close to shift change at the fire department when a firefighter spotted a man with a knife and called for help, police said.
"He’s got a knife in his hand and blood on his legs," someone can be heard saying in police dispatch audio.
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An officer who was ending his shift at the gas pumps on the police station's property was within earshot and drove to the fire station parking lot to help.
The man started approaching the officer and waved the knife toward him, police said.
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Authorities said the officer told the man to drop the knife several times, but he didn't comply and continued to come toward the officer.
At some point the officer fired at the man, hitting him in the upper body, police said.
More officers came to the scene, along with medics who were at the fire station to give first-aid to the man. He died at a hospital a short time later, police said.
No others were injured, police said.
Yellow crime scene tape bordered the police station and the fire department parking lot Thursday as investigators looked over the scene for evidence.
Police identified the man as 58-year-old Michael David Burke.
It's not clear why he went to the station, but it's possible he was experiencing a mental health crisis, Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham said at a news conference a few hours after the shooting.
The injury on Burke's leg might have been self-inflicted, Newsham said.
"The preliminary information that we have indicates this person may have been in crisis at the time," Newsham said.
The officer involved is on administrative leave as authorities investigate. He has been with the department for two years, Newsham said.
"As of this morning he's certainly shaken, but he appears to be OK," Newsham said.
"When we come to work, we come to work to help people. And, unfortunately, sometimes in this profession we have to use force and sometimes that force results in the loss of a life. And that's what happened here this morning," Newsham said.
Newsham said there was body camera footage of the shooting that investigators would review.
The regional Critical Incident Response Team will oversee the investigation as an independent body, Newsham said.
