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Police Station scene early Saturday morning after intruder was shot.
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Neighbors of the Police Station, Downtown, were awakened by four sharply echoing gunshots at 7:15 Saturday morning when a mature intruder burst onto the Duquesne Avenue grounds.
After following a police car on foot through the iron gate that serves as the vehicle entrance, just south of the station’s main door, the invader drew a small calibre handgun on three uniformed officers. He promptly was shot to death by his intended victims.
His only words were believed to be “I have a gun.”
When he showed his firearm, officers ordered him to drop it. He refused.
The bizarre almost-standoff was over in 15 seconds.
Nobody yet knows who he was, his life circumstances, or why a “casually attired, but well-dressed” white man, around 60 years old, confronted the officers.
Ample speculation about his motive centers on a “suicide-by-cop” scenario called “almost common” by law enforcement veterans.
It works this way:
A person experiencing extreme trouble in his life, desperately searches for a way out. Instead of killing himself, he finds it more appealing, or less burdensome, to confront a cop who will do the job for him.
The Sheriff’s Dept. investigation is in its fourth day, and is expected to take weeks. “They have to sift through all of the evidence, and that takes time,” said a police spokesperson. “They have to conduct interviews. The forensic evidence has to be analyzed, and then there are autopsy results. You have a lot of pieces to an investigation.”
