Police in Birmingham, Alabama, shot and killed a Hispanic man Monday during a struggle in which the suspect allegedly grabbed one of the officer’s Tasers during an attempt to arrest him.
The fatal shooting happened about 7 p.m. inside a restaurant, where the suspect reportedly entered after fleeing a traffic stop near 1st Avenue and the 8500 block of Parkway East, according to reports.
The man, who remains unidentified, had been driving erratically down the wrong side of the road and then bailed from the vehicle after deputies flashed their lights to pull him over.
From there, the man entered a restaurant, where an employee quickly came out and told officers that the suspect was inside and had armed himself with a glass bottle, WBRC reported.
As officers entered the establishment, objects were being hurled at them, and Tasers were immediately deployed to subdue the suspect, according to WBRC. The confrontation soon turned into a physical fight in which the suspect allegedly took hold of one of the Tasers, police said.
That’s when officers opened fire.
Mortally wounded, the man eventually collapsed. He was taken to UAB hospital, where he died from his wounds, the Jefferson County coroner confirmed.
It was unclear how many times the man was hit, or if multiple officers had fired their weapons, WBRC reported. None of the officers involved were injured.
The Birmingham Police Department said it was reviewing its “use of force officer involved shooting protocols.”
The Alabama Bureau of Investigations is handling the case.
The shooting happened nearly a year to the date of a similar incident in Atlanta in which Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was fatally shot after grabbing a Taser from the hands of an arresting officer.
APD Officer Garrett Rolfe was fired after the shooting but was reinstated last month with back pay; he still faces murder charges in the case.
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