Alabama police shoot, kill man with knife after traffic stop

Published 10:17 am Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Police fatally shot a man in Alabama who they say was armed with a knife and ran away from officers who were attempting to detain him.

The shooting happened Tuesday evening in Mobile after an officer stopped the man’s vehicle on a highway following several traffic violations, Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said in a news conference.

Battiste said the man pulled over, then got out of the car and fled. The officer caught up to the man and used a stun gun on him, but he got up from the ground and took off once again, the chief said. Battiste said the same scenario happened again when a second officer used a stun gun on the man.

Police said the man had refused to drop the knife before he was shot.

“As a result of that, the officers had to resort to deadly force,” Battiste said.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have not released his identity, and it’s not clear if both officers fired. They were not injured.

The shooting will be reviewed by the police department’s internal affairs unit, with the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office overseeing the probe.