A man was shot and killed this morning by a Bowling Green Police officer after witnesses said he robbed a Burger King and pulled a weapon on police.
A city police officer was driving by the Burger King at 306 Morgantown Road at 6:39 a.m. today when he was flagged down by employees at the store who said they had been robbed at gunpoint, said Officer Barry Pruitt, crime analyst for the department.
The officer, who Pruitt refused to identify, saw the man in the parking lot and ordered him to drop his weapon, he said.
"The suspect pointed his gun at the officer and the officer fired his weapon," Pruitt said.
The man then fled in the direction of the Holly Mobile Home Park, Pruitt said.
The man was found shortly after and taken into custody, and Pruitt referred all other questions to the Kentucky State Police, which is handling the investigation. The department's policy is to turn the investigation over to state police when one of its officers fires a weapon.
State police Capt. William Peyton confirmed the man had been shot.
More information will be released after further investigation, he said.
The Warren County Coroner's Office confirmed the man died, but would not release his identity.
Detectives from state police, city police and Vaughn Wallace, assistant commonwealth's attorney for Warren County, were at the scene. Several of the investigators were standing at the Western Hills Motel between the restaurant and the area where the man fled.
Burger King was closed for several hours after the incident. Employees standing outside the business said they had been ordered not to talk about the robbery.