Police in Pennsylvania used pepper spray and chemical agents against demonstrators who gathered outside a police station Sunday night to protest the fatal shooting earlier that day of a man prosecutors said had run at an officer with a knife.
The crowd of more than 100 gathered outside the Lancaster Bureau of Police Station, according the department, which said in a statement that the group was told "chemical munitions would be deployed" if it did not move.
Police then pepper-sprayed the crowd, which police say damaged a county vehicle, threw bricks at the station and tossed bottles, rocks, bricks and road barricades at officers.
The gathering was in response to the shooting of 27-year-old Ricardo Munoz.
The Lancaster City Bureau of Police responded earlier in the day to a call from a woman saying "that her brother was reportedly becoming aggressive with his mother and was attempting to break into her house," according to police.
When the first officer arrived, a man fled the house and "began chasing the officer," police said.
Body camera footage released by police shows that the man was holding what appeared to be a knife as he made his way toward the officer.
(Warning: the images contained in this video are graphic and may be disturbing.)
In the body camera video, the officer, who was the only authority on scene at the time, fired several shots, striking Munoz, who fell to the ground, dropping what appeared to be a knife. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said Munoz had been "brandishing a knife above his head, in clear view, in a threatening manner."
“A police-involved shooting has significant impact on a community, as we are seeing with the large number of individuals gathering in the streets,” DA Heather Adams said Sunday night. “However, I am asking that all reaction be tempered as the investigation is ongoing.”
