Police say the man they shot and killed at a homeless shelter in Northern Virginia Wednesday had assaulted at least six people, including two police officers.
According to a news release from the Mount Vernon Police Department, officers responded to the Eleanor Kennedy Shelter on Richmond Highway around 6 p.m. for an assault. Police say 28-year-old James Bryant, a resident of the shelter, had attacked at least four other residents at the shelter.
When officers arrived, officials say Bryant wrestled an officer and took his baton, then struck a second officer with that baton. Mount Vernon Police say the officers involved employed "multiple levels of non-deadly force" to end the assault, but failed.
Bryant was then shot and later pronounced dead. Both officers involved have been placed on routine administrative leave. All of the individuals assaulted suffered non-life threatening injuries.
The shelter is located in Hybla Valley, Va. near the Fort Belvoir military base.
News4's Shomari Stone exclusively obtained surveillance video from a 7-Eleven in the area, where a man many identified as Bryant had thrown a 2-liter soda at the ground and acted "combatively" prior to the incident at the homeless shelter.
