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Last updated on Thursday, January 8, 2009
(BLOOMINGTON) - A Bloomington teenager has been hospitalized after a police-action shooting in downtown Bloomington yesterday afternoon.
Captain Joe Qualters of the Bloomington Police Department says police were called to the Bloomington Transit bus terminal at 4th and Walnut Streets around 1:20pm yesterday, to a complaint of a man wielding a knife and making threats.
When an officer arrived, he found the person in question and when he ordered him to take his hands out of his pocket, the subject presented a knife and, after refusing orders to drop it, he reportedly charged at the officer.
At that point the officer fired two shots, striking both times in his torso.
Qualters says the suspect, who has been tentatively identified as a 16-year-old male, has been treated for his wounds that are reportedly not life threatening.
The officer involved in the shooting, whose name is being withheld, has been put on administrative leave pending a standard investigation into the incident, as the department does during any police-action shooting.
Qualters says that witnesses confirmed that verbal orders were given to the young man, and that the officer did not fire until he started running at him.
Early Wednesday evening, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan issued the following statement:
"Based on the original 911 call, eyewitness accounts and officer statements, Bloomington Police responded professionally to protect citizens in the area as well as their own safety under threat of an armed assailant. Following the shooting, law enforcement acted swiftly to secure the site and begin a thorough internal investigation. A report on the incident will reviewed by the citizen members of the Board of Public Safety and shared with the general public. On a personal note, I greatly appreciate the job our public safety officers do every day. They put themselves at risk to protect the rest of us. It is always tragic when circumstances of this nature occur in our community. Our thoughts are with everyone involved."Keep tuned to WBIW News and watching WBIW.com as we will update you with more information on this incident as it becomes available.
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