Cambridge Police shoot, kill 20-year-old man authorities say was moving toward them with ‘machete’-like knife

Sayed Faisal, 20, of Cambridge, is dead after being shot by police in the Cambridgeport neighborhood. Authorities say he was moving toward officers with what a witness described as “a machete” at the time of the shooting.

“First and foremost, our thoughts and condolences go out to the loved ones and family of Mr. Faisal,” said Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow at a press conference at police headquarters Wednesday. “The District Attorney’s office will be conducting a complete and transparent investigation; the Cambridge Police Department will be cooperating 100% with that investigation. Anytime a life is lost in our community, it is tragic, so we are all mourning.”

A man called 9-1-1 at around 1:15 p.m. Wednesday to report that a man, later identified as Faisal had jumped out of a window of a neighboring apartment and went to a nearby alley and began cutting himself with the knife and shards of the glass from the broken window, according to the press conference.

Elow and Middlesex DA Marian Ryan said the officers on the scene tried to verbally de-escalate the situation as Faisal carried a knife in a five-block circle around the Cambridgeport neighborhood that ended on Chestnut Street.

There, according to Ryan at the press conference, Faisal moved toward the officers. The officers fired at least one “sponge round,” which is a less-than-lethal deterrence round.

“That round was unsuccessful in stopping Mr. Faisal; he continued to advance to the officers holding the knife at one point across his body and then holding it raised out in front of him,” Ryan said. “A Cambridge officer discharged his department-issued firearm and struck Mr. Faisal. He was immediately rendered first aid on the scene until the emergency services responded. He was transported to Mass General Hospital and later died of his injuries.”

The number of officers present at the scene were not disclosed at the press conference, and the officer who shot Faisal was not named and only identified as an 8-year member of the force. Elow said that officers have received “extensive training in mental health and de-escalation.”

The officer, according to contract, was placed on paid leave as the investigation is underway, Ryan said.

The number of shots was either not known or not disclosed at the press conference, and Ryan said her office was awaiting a report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on the wounds to Faisal’s body.

The weapon was actually a kukri knife, Ryan said. The roughly foot-long knife is a variant of the machete, according to Blade magazine. That knife publication says the knife features “a recurve blade that developed in South Asia hundreds of years ago” and remains a standard utility knife in Nepal and is recognized as the national weapon of that nation.

This is a developing story.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/bft7eS8