An off-duty Boston police officer shot and killed a man who was attacking two people with a knife at a Chick-fil-A in the city’s Back Bay neighborhood Saturday, officials say.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox the officer was inside the restaurant on Boylston Street around 5:30 p.m. when two people ran into the restaurant, pursued by a man armed with a knife. Cox said the officer identified himself as police and told the attacker, who was trying to stab those people, to drop the knife. When the man did not, the officer fired his weapon, striking the man.
The man was taken to the hospital when he was pronounced dead. The officer was taken to the hospital as a precaution. No other injuries were reported.
The man has not been publicly identified.
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office will lead the investigation. District Attorney Kevin Hayden said investigators have a large number of witnesses, but believe there may have been more people involved in what led up to the violence.
“We ask them to step forward. We need the help of everybody that knows anything about what happened here if we’re to get to the bottom of it,” Hayden said.
Investigators are also reviewing surveillance footage in the area. The investigation is active and ongoing, shocking residents and visitors in the busy area of the city.
“I couldn’t believe that there’s been a shooting around here. I was just on my way to get some Chick- fil-A but I couldn’t even because there’s caution tape everywhere,” one man told NBC10 Boston.
“It honestly just makes me question the general safety of Boston,” another resident said.
Boylston Street is closed between Clarendon Street and Dartmouth Street and the Boston Police Homicide Unit is on scene. Anyone with information is urged to call police.
This is a breaking story. More details were not immediately available.
