A man was fatally shot as he ran toward an officer with a knife in hand Saturday morning at a Gwinnett County shopping center, authorities said.

A security guard working at the Tree Trail Village at 1250 Tech Drive called 911 after a man approached her while she sat in her security vehicle in front of a Food Depot, Gwinnett police said. The guard told dispatch the man was holding a knife and asked her if she was armed.

Officers arrived at the location at about 1 a.m. and ordered the man to drop the knife. He “refused demands to drop his knife,” however, and then ran toward one of the officers.

As a result, officers shot at the man, who police said was hit in the torso. He was identified by the GBI as 22-year-old Tiyzair Ahmad Huddleston of Norcross. Huddleston was rushed to a hospital, where he died.

Police said they are unsure about the motive for the man’s actions.

The GBI is investigating the incident. Once the independent probe is completed, the state agency will turn over its findings to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office for review.

The incident was the 108th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. By the same time last year, there had been 90. In all of 2021, there were only 100 such cases.

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