At least one person was killed after multiple shots were fired in a neighborhood south of downtown Ashland Wednesday.
Ashland Police Chief Jim Gregoire told a Daily Press reporter that an officer was involved in the shooting at that one person was dead, but he said he had no other information at about 6:45 p.m. He did not say what agency the officer involved represented or who fired the fatal shots, or when additional information might be released.
Officials had gathered at about 6:15 p.m. around the shirtless body of a man lying prone on the ground behind a home at 314 Eighth St. W. A Daily Press reporter at the scene said it appeared as though the officers and a coroner were examining the body and gathering evidence as another officer took photographs. Investigators from the state Division of Criminal Investigation, which typically handles shootings involving police, were at the scene.
Two homes in the 800 block of Fourth Avenue West, just around the corner from that house, had been surrounded by police for much of the afternoon after a series of rapidly fired gunshots rang through the neighborhood at about 3 p.m.
At about 5:15 p.m., officers had advanced on a home at 812 Fourth Ave. W. behind the cover of an armored vehicle, then rushed the home behind cover of a ballistic shield and with assault rifles drawn.
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They threw a flash-bang grenade - intended to stun suspects - toward the house and then began yelling over a loudspeaker for someone inside to "come out with your hands up."
At about 5:30 p.m., officers entered the house and then threw another flash-bang grenade inside.
Police tape surrounded a neighboring home at 816 Fourth Ave. W. Police Wednesday evening had not commented on what prompted the incident or who fired several shots that witnesses reported earlier in the afternoon.
