LAWTON, Okla. (AP) — Authorities in Oklahoma were investigating two separate police shootings Tuesday, including one in which a man was killed in Lawton after officers say he attacked them with a knife and cut one of them.
The second shooting involved a Tulsa officer who was wounded in the leg when a man opened fire as officers tried to question him about the license plate on the van he was in.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting in Lawton, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City. Lawton police told state investigators that two officers went to an apartment after a call about breaking glass, and a man came outside holding a knife.
State Bureau of Investigation agent Adam Whitney said officers tried to talk the man into putting down the knife and used a stun gun on him. Whitney said the man charged at the officers, cutting one of them, and both officers fired their guns at him. The man died at the apartment. The officer who was cut was treated for multiple knife wounds and released.
Both officers have been placed on leave while the shooting is investigated. The bureau's investigation will be forwarded to the Comanche County district attorney for consideration of criminal charges.
In the Tulsa shooting, officers had run the license plate on a van and found the plate had been issued to a different vehicle, Tulsa police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie said. The officers followed the van to a gas station to ask the people inside questions, but a man in the vehicle was "defiant," MacKenzie said.
She said more officers were called to assist with the situation, and police fired pepper-spray projectiles known as pepper balls into the van.
The man then started shooting, and officers returned fire, MacKenzie said. One of the officers was hit in the leg, and the man was struck in the chest. Both were hospitalized.
MacKenzie said the officer was in good condition and the man was in serious condition.
A female passenger and a dog inside the van were not harmed, she said. It's unclear who was driving the van, she said.
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