Sept 23 (Reuters) – A double amputee in a wheelchair was
shot and killed by Houston police after threatening an officer
with what turned out to be a pen, local media reported on
Sunday.
The shooting took place early Saturday morning at a home for
the mentally ill. An employee called police to report that
resident Brian Claunch was acting aggressively against a
caretaker who refused to give him a cigarette and a soda, the
Houston Chronicle reported.
Claunch, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder, had lost an arm and a leg in a train accident
and was sitting in a wheelchair. He trapped a policeman in a
corner with his wheelchair and tried to stab him with an object
later identified as a silver pen, the Chronicle said.
When Claunch refused police orders to drop the object, the
trapped officer’s partner shot and killed him, the newspaper
said.
(Reporting by Jane Sutton; editing by Philip Barbara)
