(CNN) — Charlotte, North Carolina, police looking to serve a warrant Tuesday shot and killed a man in the parking lot of an apartment complex.
The man was armed but not the man police were looking for, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a news release.
The late-afternoon shooting set off an angry crowd response that grew as the hours passed.
It was not clear why authorities were serving the warrant. While they were looking for that individual, officers saw a man get out of a car with a gun, then get back into the vehicle, the statement said.
Officers moved in.
“The subject got back out of the vehicle armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject,” police said.
Police Chief Kerr Putney said at least one officer shot the man. Two investigative branches of the department were looking into the shooting, he said
The man, who was not identified, died at Carolinas Medical Center.
Police claim the gun the man was holding was found at the scene.
CNN affiliate WSOC reported that protesters blocked off a road, in northeast Charlotte about 8 p.m. A line of police in riot gear stretched across the street.
Many of the demonstrators yelled, “No justice, no peace!”
At least one city bus was used for people who had been detained by police.
Police tweeted they were deploying their civil emergency unit to help patrol officers leave the scene.
The-CNN-Wire
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