INDIANAPOLIS -- While an investigation is ongoing into Saturday's fatal officer-involved shooting, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Rick Hite is defending the actions of his officers.
It was only after that family members arrived to the shooting scene, that officers learned 25-year-old Christopher Goodlow suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
But according to IMPD Chief Rick Hite, officers knew immediately something was not right.
Saturday morning, officers had received calls about a suicidal man with a knife.
"We found him to be scantily clad in his underwear, no shirt on, with a combat-style weapon," Hite said.
The entire incident was recorded by a neighbor on his cell phone. Hite says officers used verbal commands and then physically tried to disarm Goodlow. They tased him twice.
"We have to be clear that officers did everything they could to avoid this," Hite said.
Hite says when that did not work, and Goodlow took aggressive steps toward officers with the knife, they shot him.
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"No one comes on this job with the idea of looking for killing a young person," Hite said.
The two officers who fired at Goodlow are now on paid administrative leave while the case is being investigated. Hite believes their actions were justified.
What's not okay -- he says -- is the lack of resources to help those with mental illness.
25-year-old Christopher Goodlow was living alone. His family questions whether he was off his medications Saturday morning.
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