Police in Philadelphia are investigating an officer-involved shooting that took place outside St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, in which a 22-year-old man was shot and killed. Officials held a briefing to provide an update on the incident, which unfolded earlier in the day and which they described as a tragedy.
The man who died was named by officials as William Smith. According to the account given at the briefing, officers were sent to the scene after a call reported that a man was a threat to himself and had threatened staff at the hospital. Because the police district is very close to St. Christopher's, officers were able to respond quickly.
Officials said that, as the officers arrived and were getting out of their vehicle, the man began to draw a weapon, and an officer discharged. The man was struck and did not survive. The exact sequence of events, officials said, would form part of the investigation now under way.
In the hours that followed, police said they had developed new information that changed part of the initial picture. They clarified that, contrary to the first reports, there was no direct threat to St. Christopher's Hospital or to its staff at any point during the incident.
Instead, officials said, the threats appeared to relate to the man himself, and he was described as being in a suicidal state when he presented at the hospital. They emphasised that they wanted to correct the record in order to ease concerns about the safety of the hospital and the people inside it.
Officials also described some background to the events. They said there had been an incident involving the man at the hospital the previous day, after which he was asked to leave, which he did. He returned to the hospital again on the day of the shooting and was outside the building when officers arrived.
Speaking about the wider difficulty of such situations, a senior official said that an armed person who is in crisis and a danger to themselves is among the most difficult and dangerous encounters an officer can face. They said that, even with a crisis response team, there is not always an opportunity to talk a person down, and expressed regret that dialogue had not been possible in this case.
The officer involved has been removed from street duty while the shooting is reviewed, which officials said is standard procedure after any officer-involved shooting. The district attorney's office is also examining the case, and investigators said they would review how the call came in and how the response was handled. Officials extended their sympathy over what they repeatedly called a tragic outcome.