Man Killed by New Jersey Police Had Been Shot by Officers Once Before

Emergency workers had been called to the home of a 52-year-old man in Jersey City six times this month, according to local officials. During their seventh visit on Sunday, a responding police officer fatally shot him.

The man, Andrew Jerome Washington, had been shot by the police before in 2012, in “almost identical circumstances,” James Shea, the Jersey City public safety director, said.

In that encounter, a mobile crisis outreach team refused to evaluate Mr. Washington until he was “secured” by police officers, Mr. Shea said; Mr. Washington charged the officers with a knife and was shot once in the arm.

The New Jersey attorney general’s office on Sunday opened an investigation into this week’s shooting, as required by law.

Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City said on Monday that he hoped body-camera footage from the encounter would be released to the public, adding that he believed it would make it clear that the officers had followed protocol.

“It certainly is a tragic situation any time somebody loses their life, and certainly in the case of Mr. Washington,” the mayor said in an interview. “Unfortunately, the use of force was justified here.”

On Sunday, Jersey City Medical Center workers notified the police that they felt it was unsafe to enter Mr. Washington’s home, the mayor said.

Police officers in the department’s emergency services unit responded to the scene shortly afterward, according to Mr. Shea, and spent close to an hour talking with Mr. Washington through the door of his second-floor apartment.

The officers decided to open the door because they believed Mr. Washington was speaking in “an irrational fashion” and was planning to harm himself or someone else in the apartment, Mr. Shea said. When the door opened, Mr. Washington rushed the officers with what appeared to be a common kitchen knife with a six- to eight-inch blade, the city officials said. The responding officers deployed a Taser and a firearm.

The officer who shot Mr. Washington has been placed on light duty and has had his firearm taken away while the investigation proceeds, according to Mr. Fulop. The officer, who has not been named, joined the department in 2016 and had gone through training in both New York and New Jersey. He had no prior discipline or performance issues, Mr. Fulop said.

Mr. Shea said that the department responded to nearly 2,000 calls for emotionally disturbed people last year, and that officers had used force 41 times in their response. Just three people suffered injuries during those calls, and five officers were injured, Mr. Shea said during a news conference on Monday.

“Mr. Washington is sick,” Mr. Shea said. “He’s not bad, he’s not evil; he was sick, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous.”