ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Alexandria Police Department (APD) says an officer shot and killed an armed man during a wellness check late Monday night after he made a "threatening action."
Police said they responded to a 911 call for service at a building at 5101 Maris Avenue, near Francis C. Hammond Middle School, Monday night at around 10:46 p.m. The call was made by the victim's coworker, who requested a wellness check and informed police the victim had made concerning statements of self-harm, and that he was armed with two guns. Interim Chief of Police Raul Pedroso says the man exited his apartment armed with a gun when police arrived.
Pedroso says officers tried to talk the man into dropping his weapon for more than 35 minutes before he made a "threatening action" in the stairwell and was shot by an officer.
The man was pronounced dead on the scene. No one else was injured. Pedroso says the officer involved in the shooting is a nine-year veteran of the force, and is part of the city's special operations team. Per standard protocol, the officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an independent investigation by the The Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) and the APD Office of Professional Responsibility.
Pedroso says no mental health clinician was working at the time of the call, but seven officers responded to the scene, and some had specialized crisis intervention and negotiations training. He also confirmed officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the incident, although he did not say if that footage would be publicly released.
Police later identified the man as 61-year-old Paul Gabriel Behan, Jr. WUSA9's Jess Arnold spoke with a neighbor on the scene who said he knew the man. The neighbor said the deceased had lived in the building for a long time and was always handy and helpful to his neighbors — with everything from car repairs to HVAC fixes.
This neighbor said he witnessed some of the moments leading up to the shooting.
He said he arrived home to the complex, where his family has lived for nearly two decades, around 11 p.m. Monday. As he was pulling up, he saw two officers running by him.
Gradually, he started to see fire trucks, ambulances, and more police stationed in the complex.
He heard police yelling at the man to drop his weapon and within about 30 minutes of arriving home, he said he heard three gunshots.
The investigation is ongoing WUSA9 will update with more information as it becomes available.
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