A 40-year-old man was shot and killed Saturday after he charged officers with a knife outside of the Springettsbury Township Kmart, said township police Chief Thomas Hyers.
Officers were called by Kmart security just before 7 p.m. Saturday for a retail theft involving the man, whose name was not released Saturday night, Hyers said.
The man didn’t respond to the stun gun and made “aggressive moves” with the knife toward the officers and two of them opened fire, Hyers said. The man was pronounced dead at York Hospital. Hyers would not describe the man’s injuries.
A toxicology test found Shultz had cocaine in his system at the time of the shooting.
In an interview with authorities, Shultz’s girlfriend, who was not named in the report, said Shultz struggled with substance abuse, particularly crack cocaine, the report says.
A number of witnesses told police they saw an armed Shultz fighting with the officers and ignoring their commands.
One unnamed witness told authorities Shultz was “charging towards the police (with) what I thought was a knife and the police officers had no choice but to shoot the man,” the report says.
In his conclusion, Kearney said; “Mr. Shultz presented an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury at the time the officers used deadly force in the discharge of their service weapons.”
He said the matter is now closed.