Police say officers have shot and killed a man armed with a butcher knife in Northeast Philadelphia.
Lt. John Stanford said officers were called to the Oxford Circle section of the city at about 7 a.m. Saturday and found the man in the middle of the street “with knife in hand.”
He says the officers used the bumper of their vehicle to knock him to the ground and then used pepper spray on him, but he ran toward them and they fired.
He says at least three officers were finally able to wrestle the knife from the man, who was later pronounced dead at Aria Health Torresdale Hospital.
Stanford said a witness corroborated the officers' accounts. A seven-inch butcher knife was recovered. The 23-year-old man's name hasn't yet been released.
This was the fourth police-involved shooting in the past four days.
On Thursday, police shot a 21-year-old man in North Philadelphia after he allegedly ran towards them while pointing a gun at them. Neighbors claimed however that the man, who survived the shooting, was not armed.
Wednesday night, a man identified as Belton "Amir" Lomax was shot and killed by officers in Germantown. While police say he was armed with a semi-automatic weapon, family and neighbors of the father of 8 also claimed he was unarmed.
Also on Wednesday, police shot and killed another man in West Philadelphia after he allegedly pointed a gun at them during a police chase.
