Police Identify Maryland Man Fatally Shot By Officer
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Maryland police department on Friday released the name of a man accused of brandishing a knife and charging at an officer who shot and killed him in a parking lot.
Finan H. Berhe, 30, died at a hospital after the officer shot him Thursday afternoon, according to a Montgomery County Police Department news release.
The name of the officer, a 17-year veteran of the department, wasn't immediately released.
Department spokesman Rick Goodale said the officer is a white man. Berhe was black, according to online court records.
The officer who shot Berhe was the first to respond to a call about a man who threw a rock at a neighbor's window and yelled for them to call police, according to police Chief Marcus Jones and the department's news release.
Berhe ignored the officer's commands to drop the knife and get on the ground and rushed at the officer while holding the knife, police said.
The officer performed first aid on the man before he was taken to the hospital, according to Jones.
The chief said there is body camera video as well as eyewitness video of the incident.
The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure after a police shooting.
Police detectives' findings will be submitted to the Howard County state's attorney's office.
That office also is reviewing evidence in another recent deadly shooting by Montgomery County police.
The police department has said an officer shot and killed 21-year-old Duncan Socrates Lemp at his home on March 12. The department has said Lemp was armed with a rifle and ignored commands to show his hands, but lawyers for his family said an eyewitness said Lemp was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house in Potomac, Maryland.
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