Chattanooga Police early Saturday morning shot and killed a man first spotted with a rifle in Rossville who, they say, eventually confronted them after initially threatening suicide.
According to preliminary reports by investigators, Chattanooga Police were dispatched at 4:16 a.m. to 4502 Rossville Blvd. on a call of a man in the middle of Rossville Boulevard with a rifle.
Once officers got on the scene, they encountered the man standing in front of McDonald’s with a rifle to his face.
Officers tried to get the man, 32-year-old Alonzo Hayward, to drop the gun, but he refused.
Hayward led officers from the McDonald’s parking lot down to 4316 7th Ave., "where he engaged police," Sgt. Jerri Weary said.
She stated, "At some point during contact with Hayward, police were forced to take action and Hayward was shot and subsequently died on the scene."
According to witnesses, Hayward had threatened to commit suicide and several of his friends were trying to talk him out of it when he gained access to the rifle. At some point during the night, he ended up in the middle of Rossville Boulevard with the rifle. Passers-by called police and reported several men in the middle of Rossville Boulevard wrestling with a man with a gun.
The Chattanooga Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are involved in the investigation.