Portland police shoot man with knife in downtown building
Officers tried to talk with the man and used less lethal force before the shots were fired
Portland: Officers shot and killed on Sunday a man armed with a knife who suggested he had an explosive device, the Portland Police Bureau said.
The incident happened shortly before 10am at a building in downtown's Pearl District, police said. Officers were called to the building in response to reports of a disturbance caused by a man with a knife.
When officers arrived, they saw a man and a woman in the stairwell of the building, police said. The woman appeared to be injured; she has since been treated at a hospital and released.
Officers tried to talk with the man and used less lethal force before the shots were fired, police said. The man died at the scene, said police, who did not release the man's age or identity.
The woman was taken to the hospital for treatment of her injuries. No officers were injured, police said.
The bureau's Explosive Disposal Unit determined there was not an explosive at the scene.
Mike Connors, a lawyer who works in the building, told Oregonlive/The Oregonian that he was arriving at work in the morning when he heard people arguing in a stairwell. Connors said he called 911 and yelled into the stairwell that he had done so.
He said he heard a man's voice shout back, "I have a knife, a bomb and a hostage. Bring it on."
Connors told the newspaper that he left to wait for police to arrive and didn't witness the subsequent shooting. "I was kind of in shock," he said.
Portland Police Homicide Detectives and the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office are investigating.