WITN reports a man is dead after an officer-involved shooting at an ECU facility Monday evening.
The Greenville Police Department said officers were called to assist ECU police at the ECU North Recreational Complex at 601 Recreational Way after a report of a man with a gun who was threatening to harm himself around 4:30 p.m.
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Officials say at around 5:15 p.m., the man raised a gun at police officers, causing an officer to shoot and kill him.
The Greenville officer who shot the man has been placed on administrative assignment. The SBI has also been requested to help follow up with investigating the shooting.
A witness said he was playing frisbee golf at the ECU North Recreational Center when he saw the man.
“We were real close to him, we were like 10 feet, 15 feet away from him,” Leo Brown said. “I say hey to him, he didn’t respond, he just shook his head and then we kept continuing playing. One cop came to us, he like y’all need to back up this guy’s armed, he’s dangerous and we were....in shock because we were real real close to him and we backed up and after like a few minutes they started talking to him. The guy wasn’t cooperating and I think they shot him. I heard gunshots.”
The witness said he was about 100-150 feet away after officers told him to back up when he heard two gunshots.
According to officials, the man who was killed is believed to be middle-aged and is not believed to have any affiliation with ECU.
When asked why an ECU campus wide alert wasn’t sent out, ECU’s Deputy Chief of Police Chris Sutton said that was due to the location of the incident and that there was no sign of an ongoing threat near the main ECU or health campus.
Officials say more information will be released as it becomes available. Anyone who witnessed the shooting is asked to contact police.