New York - Another investigation is under way in the eastern US city of Baltimore after police officers shot and killed an unarmed black man when they were called to investigate a case of domestic abuse.
Three officers have been placed on administrative leave while the inquiry is carried out.
The officers, two of them white and one black, said they believed that the victim, identified as 41-year-old Spencer McCain, was armed.
Jim Johnson, the chief of police for Baltimore County, said that Mr McCain was shot at about 1am in a flat in the suburb of Owings Mills, while a woman who said that he had threatened to beat her and her two young children were there.
Mr Johnson said all three officers fired at Mr McCain, who had adopted a “defensive position”, and he was hit several times.
Police said the woman had head injuries, cuts, bruises and swelling.
Mr Johnson said she had told detectives that Mr McCain said to her: “You're going to get the beating you deserve.”
Police said the incident began when one of the children in the property called his grandmother, who made an emergency call to police.
An officer who arrived heard screams and called for back-up.
Mr Johnson said 19 casings were found at the scene, but it was not clear how many times Mr McCain was hit.
Another police spokesman, Cpl John Wachter, said 16 to 20 domestic violence calls had been made to the address since 2012.
A neighbour, Keith Lewis, said he had heard shouting and screaming from the property several times during the five years he had lived next door.
The shooting follows the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in Baltimore in April after being arrested by police and bundled into a van.
Six officers have been charged over his death - one of them with murder.
A post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Gray died from a single “high-energy injury”, most likely caused by the braking of the police car.
The incident led to peaceful protests across the city, as well as sporadic riots.
The officers' trial is due to start in October.
The Independent