A Kearny man wielding a Samurai sword was shot and killed by police officers on Friday night, authorities said.
The dead man was identified by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office as Shaun Johnson, 35. The two officers involved in the incident were not injured.
Kearny police has asked the Pinal sheriff's office to investigate the shooting.
At about 11 p.m. Friday, a woman in Kearny called 911 to report a domestic problem involving her husband. A dispatcher could hear yelling and screaming in the background of the call, according to the Pinal sheriff's office.
As Kearny police officers arrived at the residence in the 59700 block of East Bidegain Place, they saw the woman walking down the street with her children. She told the officers that her husband was inside the house.
As the two officers walked up to the residence, a man later identified as Johnson came charging at them with a Samurai sword. The officers told him to drop the sword but he refused and ran behind the house, the office said in a news release.
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As the officers chased him, they went around the corner of the house and Johnson was standing there with the sword above his head. An officer about 8 feet away feared for his safety and fired four rounds from his handgun, striking Johnson in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene, the office said.
The officers told investigators that they had contact with Johnson earlier in the night when they told him to leave a bar because he was causing a disturbance.
The sheriff's office investigation into the shooting is continuing.
