Cops on Long Island shot and killed a suicidal man Friday night after they said he charged down his driveway while pointing a handgun at officers.
When police arrived at the house on Stone Boulevard in Massapequa at about 8:30 p.m., they found David Clements, 19, holding two handfuns, according to a press release from the Nassau County Police Department.
He was holding a gun in each hand and pointing the barrels at his own head as he threatened to kill himself, cops said.
Police told him to put the guns down, but he allegedly ignored their commands.
He went back inside for a moment, then came rushing out and charged down his driveway, his gun levelled at the police, the release said.
“It became necessary for an officer to use deadly force,” the release continued. “This officer was forced to shoot David Clements to stop the threat to officers and the public.”
Clements died at the scene.
One neighbor told The Post that cops were trying to talk him down, but Clements was having none of it.
“He was really upset,” the neighbor said. “I think they all got much more excited when he went inside the house and then came back out. The cop was yelling, ‘Put the gun down!’ really loud … he said it over and over and over.”
“I only saw the gun [Clements] pointed at them,” the man continued. “It was just a regular 9 mm pistol with a light mounted on the bottom of it.”
Other neighbors were in shock after the episode.
“We were sitting here in the living room, and we heard three gunshots,” a neighbor in his 60s told The Post. “My wife asked me, ‘Was that fireworks?’ And I was like, not in February. And then within a minute, we heard police sirens. It was terrible.”
Several neighbors said the family, who has lived in the home for about a decade, rarely emerges from the house.
One woman who lives across the street told The Post that kids in the neighborhood thought Clements was “a little off,” but they were still friends with him.
The Nassau County Police Department’s homicide squad is investigating alongside the state attorney general’s office, according to CBS.