Man Waving A Knife Shot By Brockton Police, DA Says
BROCKTON (CBS) -- A man shot by police in Brockton will be criminally charged, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz announced Monday.
The shooting occurred on North Main Street around 6:35 p.m. Sunday when police responded to the area after a 911 call said a man was threatening to harm himself. A man holding a large knife "advance and/or lunged at police officers, the officers fired their weapons, the man was struck," said Cruz.
The man was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital and then to Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has been identified as 51-year-old George A. Baron of Brockton.
He will be charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
Witnesses told WBZ-TV on Sunday night that many neighbors thought of Baron as "family" and that "he [had] a lot going on his life...there was just no need of four shots."
"It's just sad, sad that no one could really just talk to him and things had to go like this," another neighbor said.
One woman said, "There was no need of it, they could have tased him."
According to Brockton Mayor William Carpenter, police officers in the city do have tasers but not all of them carry one at all time.
Two officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave, he added, which is routine for police-involved shootings.