Prosecutors say Lowell police justified in fatal shooting of man armed with meat cleaver
Prosecutors in Middlesex County said Tuesday that Lowell police officers were justified in their killing of a man armed with a meat cleaver in March.
Jose Perez, 39, was killed on March 26 after police were called to 75 Cambridge St. for a report of a man with a knife just before 11 p.m.
In 911 calls released Tuesday, a man identified as Perez called 911.
“Send a f—-ing car to 75 Cambridge St.,” Perez says in the call, ignoring the dispatcher’s questions. “Send it right now because I’m going to f—-ing kill everybody. Send it! Send it! I don’t give a f—! Send it!”
In a second call, Perez’s girlfriend’s 17-year-old daughter said there was a suicidal person in the apartment.
“He has two knives and he wants to kill himself,” she told the dispatcher.
Prosecutors said when police arrived, they found Perez with a meat cleaver and a second large knife. He refused to drop the weapons and advanced on officers, according to the district attorney’s office, and officers Guillermo Rojas and Chase Suong shot and killed Perez. Rojas fired six times and Suong twice, authorities said.
After he was shot, Perez remained standing, according to the prosecutor’s report. Then, he dropped to the floor, still holding the kitchen knife in his right hand. The officers dragged him away from the knives in the hallway of the apartment.
Perez was transported to Lowell General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had cocaine in his system and at least a 0.2 blood-alcohol limit when he died, authorities said.
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