Upper Merion police fatally shoot man accused of wielding knife

Upper Merion Township police officers shot and killed a man accused of charging at them with a knife early Thursday, the police department said.

The incident began at 12:54 a.m. when Upper Merion officers were called to a home in the township’s Glenn Rose neighborhood, where the Montgomery County Mobile Crisis Unit had been working with a family, according to a statement from Upper Merion police.

Upon arrival at the residence, police said, officers found a man waving a knife in the living room.

“Officers immediately began to try and de-escalate the situation and gain a rapport” with the man, who was argumentative and did not comply with demands, eventually charging at the two officers, police said. The officers used a stun gun on the man with “little to no effect,” according to the statement.

The officers shot the man after he attempted to charge at them with the knife a second time, Upper Merion police said. The man died at the scene.

The man’s identity has not been released. The shooting is being investigated by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, which takes on Montgomery County cases when that county’s district attorney’s office has a conflict of interest.

No information about the officers was released. Both are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, in accordance with the Upper Merion police department’s policy.