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US police fatally shoot another black man

Kevin Allen was holding a knife and he lunged toward the officers, who opened fire, shooting him dead.

An African American man has been shot and killed by police at a public library in New Jersey following an altercation, authorities say.

The 36-year-old man, identified as Kevin Allen, was fatally shot on Friday afternoon after police were called to the library.

Apparently, the man was holding a knife and he lunged toward the officers, who opened fire, shooting him dead.

According to Bergen County prosecutor John Molinelli, three officers were involved in the shooting. However, it is not known how many officers fired their guns or how many shots were fired.

A friend of Allen, William McMann, described him as a “great guy” who “always had a smile on his face.”

When asked about the incident, McMann said, “It doesn’t sound like Kevin, not the Kevin I know. He was gentle.”

According to a woman, who lives in a Lyndhurst apartment where Mr. Allen had lived, officers had been looking for Allen as they knocked on her door earlier in the week asking about the victim.

An eye witness, Jayne Thorne, who was leaving the library at the time of shooting, said she saw two plainclothes officers and a uniformed officer running toward the library.

“They ran in, and I said, ‘What the hell’s going on?’ Nothing happens in Lyndhurst,” Ms. Thorne said.

"I rushed into the library, and the next thing I know they were dragging someone out on a stretcher." 

Lyndhurst Police Chief James O'Connor said that the shooting was justified. "There was nothing else they could have done."

The killings of some black men by white police officers in recent months, and decisions by grand juries not to indict the officers, have sparked a national debate on race and led to mass street protests all over the United States.

AT/GJH

 


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