AKRON, Ohio — A police officer in Akron shot and killed an armed man after hearing gunshots on Thanksgiving night, authorities said.
Police said in a news release that two patrol officers were in a parked police cruiser in the Sherbondy Hill neighborhood as they worked on a report from an unrelated incident. They heard gunshots nearby just after 11 p.m. Thursday and got out to investigate, police said.
Shortly afterward, the officers encountered a man with a loaded firearm, police said. One of the officers fired, striking the man, who was provided first aid and then taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police said the officer who fired, who has been on the force for nearly five years, and his partner were placed on paid administrative leave per department policy.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations will investigate, and the state attorney general’s office will review the results before submitting the report to a Summit County grand jury for evaluation. Akron police will also do a separate internal investigation and provide the results to the police chief and the city’s police auditor.
