The Alexandria Police Department identified 61-year-old Paul G. Behan, Jr. as the man who was fatally shot by an officer on Monday night (Aug. 12).
Behan was shot and killed by a police officer after a 35 minute standoff in the stairwell of his apartment building at 5101 Maris Avenue. One of Behan’s coworkers called 911 at around 10:45 p.m. to warn that he’d threatened to shoot himself, and relayed to police that Behan owned at least two guns.
Behan was a radiographer and laboratory technician for more than 30 years, and worked for the last decade at a facility in D.C., according to his LinkedIn page.
Interim Police Chief Raul Pedroso said that officers responded within three minutes of the call. At 11 p.m., officers reported that Behan was in the stairwell of his building pointing a rifle at his own head.
“The man exited his apartment holding a gun,” Pedroso told reporters on Wednesday. “The officers negotiated with the armed man for more than 35 minutes, all the while attempting to deescalate the situation. Through the course of the negotiation, the officers pleaded with the man numerous times to drop his weapon. In response to a threatening action, at approximately 11:21 p.m., one APD officer discharged his service weapon, striking the man.”
Behan died at the scene.
The officer who killed him is a nine-year APD veteran and has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of an investigation into the shooting. The officer’s identity has not been released.
The apartment building’s door was open on Wednesday afternoon, the day after the shooting. The carpet along the ground floor of the stairwell had recently been cut away, but otherwise there were no visible signs that an incident occurred.
Pedroso said that officers at the scene wore active body-worn cameras, and that the footage will be reviewed by the APD Critical Response Team, and in an internal administrative inquiry monitored by the Alexandria Policing Auditor.
