Posted on 05/12/2005 11:02:33 AM PDT by jb6
Police say 67-year-old pointed gun, threatened them
GARY L. WRIGHT
Staff Writer
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shot and killed a 67-year-old man in a wheelchair early Wednesday morning after authorities said the victim pointed a handgun at officers and threatened them.
Police wouldn't say how many shots were fired or where the gunfire struck Alexander Ehrenburg.
Police spokesman Keith Bridges told reporters that Ehrenburg, a double amputee, was shot at his home on Amity Springs Drive near Sharon Amity Road after he pointed a handgun at police officers and refused to put it down. Ehrenburg did not fire at the officers, Bridges said.
"He had a handgun in his lap and brought the gun up when the officers were at the door," Bridges said.
Bridges said police officers made "commands, requests and pleas" for Ehrenburg to put down the weapon.
"Our goal was for this to end peacefully," Bridges said.
Bridges wouldn't say what kind of weapon Ehrenburg had. "It was a handgun he waved at the officers," he said.
Bridges described Ehrenburg as "a barricaded gunman" who posed a threat to police officers.
Police are conducting criminal and internal affairs investigations into the fatal shooting. Bridges said investigators will try to determine whether the shooting was a "suicide by cop" -- a term used to describe a confrontation in which a suspect intends for police to use deadly force.
Ehrenburg's wife, who was in Poland, was notified of her husband's death Wednesday morning. Bridges said police contacted the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw and that an Embassy official told Ehrenburg's wife about his death.
Don King, who lives four doors from the scene of the fatal shooting, didn't hear all the commotion outside Ehrenburg's condo last night. He was shocked when he woke up Wednesday morning, saw TV trucks and crews outside his condo and learned of his neighbor's death.
King said Ehrenburg was an immigrant from Russia. "Alex came from a place where fear of police was pervasive," he said. "To get killed in his own home by police, that's a cruel fate. What a tragedy for everybody -- for Alex and the police. "
King said Ehrenburg was friendly and outgoing.
"Alex was an icon in the community," he said. "You could always see him riding around in his electric wheelchair. He'd frequently stop to talk to people."
The fatal shooting occurred more than three hours after firefighters and police arrived at the condominium complex and confronted what they described as an armed man in a wheelchair inside the home.
Bridges said a Salisbury physician, who had been talking to Ehrenburg, had contacted police and asked them to check on the man's welfare. The doctor said he was concerned after the phone conversation with Ehrenburg, police said.
Here's what police say happened when police, firefighters and Medic personnel responded at the condominium shortly after 9:30 Tuesday night:
When no one would come to the door, firefighters forced their way into the home. Once inside, they were confronted by the man in the wheelchair, who was armed with a gun and pointing the weapon at them, police said. The firefighters left the house.
The police department's SWAT team was called, and negotiations were attempted but cut short when the resident hung up his phone shortly before 11 p.m. The phone was later disconnected.
"He kept hanging the phone up on us," Bridges said.
Negotiators used loudspeakers and other means to resume communications but were unsuccessful.
Shortly before 1 a.m., SWAT officers opened the home's door and threw in a portable phone in hopes of re-establishing communication.
The man in the wheelchair raised a handgun from his lap and pointed it at officers, police said. He refused to drop his gun as officers ordered and continued to threaten officers with the weapon, police said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Chris Kimbell fired his weapon, striking the man. Ehrenburg was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at Carolinas Medical Center.
Kimbell, a 10-year veteran, has been placed on administrative duty -- standard procedure while the criminal and internal affairs investigations are under way.
The family are saying that he was feeling bad and called a doctor. The police arrived and started battering down the door. Now, considering the guy was inside his own house, by himself, with no hostages and he wasn't shooting at anyone, what right have the police to threaten him on his property? What right have the police to shoot someone in their own house for no real crime? A month ago, the Charlotte police took care of another such "threat" to society, this time a black guy also in a wheel chair.
This story stinks. The firefighters, concerned for his welfare bust in to his house and he has a gun pointed at them. They leave, and the story should be over. Instead, cops enter the house. Why? He committed no crime.
Not any more!
Leftover police goons from Clintonistas?
This is sick, getting sicker!
What do the Charlotte cops have against disabled people in wheelchairs ?
May they're easier to shoot - they don't move to too fast ?
Considering he spent 30 years in the US working as an engineer, yes and very well.
This is a really bad situation. The police were not in the right on this. They had no reason to break down a man's door to his own home. Neither did paramedics. They all should go to prison, but of course, they won't.
Regardless of why the police were there, where did he get the idea he could point a gun a police and get away with it?
What an incredibly stupid thing to do. It sounds like Suicide by Cop to me.
In almost every place I know of, if you call an ambulance or a fire truck, you get cops too. Its a package deal.
When he called the doctor (did he really, or did you make this up?), and the doctor was sufficiently alarmed so as to notify the police, then there must have been (1) and emergency sufficient enough to require it (2) a suicide threat, (3) some other threat such that the doc notified the police.
If the doctor notified police then you should address your questions to the Doctor, but the Police were doing what they have to do.
Then he tries to interrogate me, trying to get "official" on me. Piece of crap.
They're on consumer trimming, you know, disabled dessimation is all the rage this year. They're consumers not producers.
If he was going to fire on the police, he would have done so on the get go. Did you consider Ruby Ridge lawful too?
Its the police part that has me angry. Parameds report incident to police. Police respond. OK, fine so far. Police enter house and engage the guy in the wheelchar. Why not try to communicate first? Or locate family? Or bring his doctor who orignally called in to speak to the guy? This was pretty avoidable.
Then he's to blame for the whole thing. He pointed the gun at fire fighters, then he hung up on the police. negotiator, then he points his weapon at police, when they make entry.
bump
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