Boston, Massachusetts: Man With a Knife Shot by Police in Brighton Dies, District Attorney Investigating

A man armed with a large knife died at a hospital on Friday after a Boston police officer shot him once during a morning call at a home in Brighton, officials said. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office is investigating the shooting.

What officials say happened on Selkirk Road

Boston police were called to 24 Selkirk Road just before 7 a.m. on Friday after a report that a man was threatening to harm himself while armed with a large knife, according to a summary of the official accounts published by Particle News. The street sits in Brighton, the Boston neighborhood near Cleveland Circle, and officers closed Selkirk Road off while they worked at the scene, WBZ-TV reported.

Officers spent about 20 minutes trying to de-escalate the call and persuade the man to drop the knife. Officials said he then charged at officers on a front porch of the home. One officer fired one shot, which struck the man in the stomach.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries, WCVB reported. Two officers were also evaluated at a hospital. WBZ-TV reported that Commissioner Michael Cox and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden described the shooting at a midday briefing as an officer firing once at a man armed with a knife during a domestic incident. Police held that update at Boston Police Headquarters at about 12:45 p.m. on Friday, several hours after the call came in.

The man's name has not been released in the reports published so far, and officials have not said which hospital treated him.

The district attorney review

The case now sits with District Attorney Kevin Hayden's office, as Boston 25 News reported on Friday in its account of the deadly police involved shooting, which authorities described as following a mental health crisis. The review will look at body worn camera footage from the scene, at whether less lethal tools on scene were used or considered, and at whether officers followed the department's procedures for responding to a person in a mental health crisis.

That review is the part of this story Brighton residents are most likely to hear about next. Police shootings in Boston are investigated by the Suffolk County district attorney, and the questions listed for this one go to the center of the call: what the cameras recorded during the 20 minutes of talking, what other tools were at hand on the porch, and how the response fit the rules for a person threatening to harm himself.

The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and Mayor Michelle Wu both issued statements on Friday offering support and condolences, according to the published accounts. Neither statement, as reported, added new facts about the shooting itself.

For the Selkirk Road block, Friday began with a closed street and a heavy police presence before most neighbors had left for work, and it ended with one man dead and a formal investigation open. No charges, findings or camera footage have been announced. The district attorney's office has not given a date for any further update.