Quick-thinking police officers in North Carolina on Saturday fatally shot a man as he stabbed his 13-year-old stepdaughter who was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
Officers arrived at the Charlotte home to find the man holding the girl at knifepoint. The girl’s mother fled after the man forced his way into the home, police said in a news release. The woman managed to tell authorities that her daughter was still in the house with her stepfather.
Police said they tried to deescalate the situation, but the man, “without warning,” began to stab the girl.
“They were met with something that horrific, to see a 13-year-old getting stabbed, and they were left with no choice,” said Johnny Jennings, the chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, according to the Charlotte Observer. “The motive to stab a 13-year-old is something that is beyond comprehension for us.”
The paper reported that authorities did not identify the suspect or the teen.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating and the officer will be placed on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure after a shooting.
Jennings called the responding officers heroic. The officer who fired the shot is distraught and upset that it came to this, but the department plans to get them whatever help they need, authorities told the station.
That officer is a hero! It takes a real man to
shoot, evidently, a deranged person who
is stabbing a thirteen year old. He deserves
a medal for his actions. God Bless Him🙏
Glad the officer shot him. What kind of a person stabs a young child?. I pray the young girl recovers not only physically but emotionally as well. My prayers go out to this family.