FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—A boy climbed through a window with his younger brother and called 911 after their mother was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, said police, who stormed the house and fatally shot the man when he lunged at them with a knife.
Emergency dispatchers received a call late Wednesday night from the 11-year-old boy saying his mother was stabbed, according to a Fayetteville Police news release. Police say the boy and his 9-year-old brother fled the violence by climbing through a window about 6 feet off the ground and running to a neighbor’s house.
Officers created a perimeter around the house but were unable to make contact with anyone inside.
When officers kicked in the door, they saw the man standing over the woman’s body in a pool of blood, according to the release. They told the man to drop the knife multiple times, but he refused, authorities said. The release said an officer tried to use a Taser and when the man lunged at officers, at least one officer fired and fatally wounded him.
Interim Police Chief Anthony Kelly said two white officers and an officer of Asian descent have been put on administrative duty while the shooting is investigated, but it wasn’t immediately clear who fired the fatal shot. The State Bureau of Investigation is also investigating.
Kelly identified the slain woman as 37-year-old Amanda Williams. He said her boyfriend was Mark Anthony Hicks, 31.
#Breaking-Family says man shot and killed by police is 31-year-old Mark Anthony Hicks. #ABC11 pic.twitter.com/6zpeEIpHLU
— Gloria Rodriguez (@GloriaABC11) December 8, 2016
Police body cameras recorded the officers’ involvement.
Kelly said he would work with local officials on whether the graphic video would be released. A recently enacted North Carolina law requires the approval of a judge for public release of body camera footage.
Kelly said neither boy was hurt, and Williams’ 4-year-old daughter wasn’t in the house at the time. He said the three children are staying with their fathers.
“This is a tragic situation, listening to that 911 call from that child two weeks before Christmas,” he said.
The names of people involved haven’t been released. Police say both man and the woman who was killed were black. The races of the officers involved weren’t disclosed.
