Nancy Gaarder
Omaha World-Herald
Omaha ​police shot a man Thursday after he charged at his mother and officers with a knife, according to police. The man had also cut himself with the knife.
Police provided this account in a statement late Thursday evening:
About 2:30 p.m., a man called 911 to report that he was possessed and that his mother was controlling his mind. The 911 dispatcher could hear a disturbance in the background.
When two police officers arrived at the home in the 4300 block of South 41st Avenue, they found the mother outside screaming for help, saying her son was cutting his throat.
Officers followed the 66-year-old mother into the home and found the 37-year-old son in a blood-soaked shirt, seated, screaming and cutting near his throat.
The mother struggled with her son, and an officer ordered him to drop his knife. The son refused and began to stand up and move toward the officer, screaming "shoot me."
Omaha police near 41st and I Streets on Thursday.
ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD
The officer then used his Taser, but it didn't stop the man. Instead, he charged, and the officer used the Taser a second time. That dropped the man to the floor, but he remained combative and moved toward officers.
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Officers backed out the door of the house, and as the glass door closed, they saw the screaming son rush toward his mother with the knife. Both officers commanded him to drop the knife, but he grabbed his mother and raised his knife. One of the officers fired a shot through the door that hit the man in his left cheek. The mother and son fell to the floor, and police separated them, taking the mother outside.
As officers called for medical assistance, the son got up, ran out the door and tackled one of the officers in the yard, yelling that he would kill them. Additional officers arrived, and they were able to subdue the man.
He was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center in serious condition with the wound to the cheek and several self-inflicted lacerations. His wounds are not considered life-threatening.
The altercation was captured by officers' body-worn cameras. A special unit of the Omaha Police Department will investigate the case with the help of the Nebraska State Patrol and the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office.
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