RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Two police officers and a suspect were shot and wounded during an early morning encounter in Virginia’s capital city, according to authorities.
Richmond police officers responded to a report of an armed person on the city’s south side just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said in a statement.
Officers encountered three males, and one produced a firearm and “exchanged gunfire” with one of the officers, police said.
The wounded officers and suspect were all taken to a hospital. One of the officers had life-threatening injuries and the other suffered a gunshot wound that was not life-threatening, police said.
The suspect, who police identified Tuesday evening as Waseem A. Hackett, 19, was charged with malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Hackett, whose injuries were not life-threatening, also was served with outstanding warrants from a nearby jurisdiction, and additional charges are pending, police said.
It was not immediately clear if Hackett had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Police said one of the three men police encountered had attended protests earlier in the evening over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes, even after he stopped moving. They did not say whether the person who attended was Hackett.
The department’s Force Investigation Team will review the shooting and report its findings to the police chief and commonwealth’s attorney’s office, the statement said.
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