Presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Sunday he has canceled several campaign events to return to his town of South Bend, Indiana, to address a fatal officer-involved shooting.
“We will be striving to reach out to community members,” Mr. Buttigieg said in a late-night press conference, The Associated Press reported.
The St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office said the incident is under investigation after police responded to a call about someone going through cars.
The man reportedly was shot by police after he approached the officer brandishing a knife when confronted. The man, identified as Eric Logan, later died of his injuries.
Mr. Buttigieg said his return to South Bend is to address criticisms earlier in his mayoral term that he has inadequately handled officer-involved shootings in the past and failed to keep the community informed.
“One of the reasons we’re communicating upfront right now is because of lessons learned from members of the community,” he said, according to CNN. “We’ve had prior cases of use-of-force incidents and officer-involved shootings where I hesitated, frankly, to get in front of cameras because we didn’t know very much, and it was out of our hands.”
Mr. Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, is replacing him Monday at the Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ gala in New York.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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