COLUMBIA − An adult male who police say was suicidal died Friday afternoon after he was shot by officers.
Columbia Assistant Police Chief Lance Bolinger said officers were called to The Landing at CoMo apartment complex on Campusview Drive at 3:05 p.m. for a report of a suicidal subject.
Officers spoke to the man and cleared the call. Then around 3:57 p.m., the man called 911 and requested officers back to the scene, according to Bolinger.
The Highway Patrol is investigating the shooting at the request of the Columbia Police Department.
When officers arrived, police say the man was armed and started firing shots into the air. Then the man started directing gunfire toward officers, Bolinger said.
Officers returned fired at the suspect. The man is deceased.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control unit will investigate the shooting, according to a tweet from the patrol.
Police did not release additional information due to the ongoing investigation.
At least a dozen police cars, a crime scene van and Highway Patrol troopers were parked outside the apartment complex. Crime scene tape was up around the parking lot, and a KOMU 8 reporter also saw an ambulance leave the scene.
Major police presence at the Landing Apartment complex. We’ll have the latest at 5 and 6 on @KOMUnews pic.twitter.com/IVLkadi8dt
— John Murphy (@JohnDMurphy24) August 4, 2023
An autopsy will be completed.
Bolinger said suicidal subject calls are one of the “most difficult, challenging calls that officers have to handle.”
“We give them a priority list of how they should handle it. We call them our safety priorities,” Bolinger said. “We literally engrain it in new officers from the time they start to the time they end. And it starts with priorities of life.”
He added that CPD is working to develop a program which would involve mental health specialists responding to certain scenarios alongside police officers.
Columbia Assistant Police Chief Jill Schlude said dangerous situations like this one will be taken into account as they develop this program.
“Sometimes with mental health calls, they can become dangerous very quickly. So, when we put that program together, we’re going to be very deliberate keeping in mind things like this,” she said.
Mental health specialists were not involved in the response to this scene.
“Safety of all people is our highest priority. Law enforcement, we get into law enforcement to save people, to help people, and sometimes it’s just beyond our control and we have to react to dangers that we face,” he continued.