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NYPD kills yute who had a hairbrush
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Officers shot and killed an 18-year-old man who they believed to be armed, New York police said, but witnesses said Tuesday he was only holding a hairbrush.
Officers in New York early Tuesday guard the scene of a police shooting that left a teen dead.
The Monday night shooting followed a 911 call from the man's mother. Police described the situation as "a family dispute with a gun."
After officers arrived, the teen refused to halt as he approached police, prompting them to open fire, The Associated Press reported.
Police told The New York Times they believed the teen, Khiel Coppin, had a gun, but after five officers fired 20 shots they realized he was holding only a hairbrush.
"The boy didn't have no gun, he had a brush on him," said Andre Wildman, a neighbor who told CNN that he saw the shooting.
Watch witnesses describe the shooting ยปAnother neighbor, Wayne Holder, said police should be required to see a weapon before opening fire on a suspect. "At least see a gun before you start to discharge it," Holder said. Police "don't even have to see it, [if] they think you got one, you're going to get shot."
The AP reported that the teen had a history of mental illness and his mother had tried to have him hospitalized earlier in the day.
A bystander who said he saw the shooting told CNN affiliate WABC-TV that the man was unarmed. "He dropped the brush," said the bystander, Dyshawn Gibson. "He put his hands up. Police just started firing."
As the teen approached officers, police ordered him to stop, police spokesman Paul Browne told AP. The teen refused and continued to approach, Browne said, prompting police to open fire.
An initial police statement given to reporters Monday night said the man was seen earlier pacing around the apartment.
"He began screaming from the window at his mother and the police," the police statement said. "At some point, the male climbed out of the window and began crossing the sidewalk toward the police."
That's when police began firing, a police spokesman said.
The police spokesman said officers were called to the apartment building in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood at about 7 p.m. by Coppin's mother who said she was having a dispute with her son.
According to a statement, police said Coppin's mother reported that her son was armed. But The New York Times quoted police who said Coppin himself was overheard on the mother's 911 call threatening to kill her and claiming "I have a gun." E-mail to a friend
CNN's Jennifer Rizzo and Alina Cho contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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