OFFICER IN DRUG INVESTIGATION SHOOTS MAN

A police officer shot and wounded a man in a southwestern Birmingham
neighborhood Tuesday.

Authorities said the man, with his hand tucked in his pocket, advanced
on the officer and refused to obey his commands.

A West Precinct officer fired at least one shot at the man, striking
him in the face. Police would not release the man's name and efforts
to obtain his condition were unsuccessful.

The officer is on paid leave pending an investigation. Authorities
said the shooting appears to be justified.

West Precinct officers were called to the 100 block of Cotton Avenue
just before 11 a.m. Tuesday to investigate a complaint of drug
activity in the area.

Moments later, in the back yard of a home on Second Street S.W., an
officer searching for the drug suspect met up with a man who fit a
description of the suspect, police spokesman Lt. Henry Irby said.

He had his hand in his pocket and refused to take it out. That's when
the officer fired his gun.

"I heard the officer say, 'He had his hand in his pocket and he kept
coming at me,'" said the Rev. Al Lewis, pastor of House of Restoration
Mission, which backs up to the site of the shooting.

Lewis said he heard the shot and watched the activity that followed
from outside his church. The suspect kept trying to get up, he said.

"The police just told him to lay there, lay still," Lewis said. "I
heard the police asking each other why it was taking so long for the
paramedics to get there."

Lewis said unfortunately he wasn't taken aback by the shooting outside
of his church.

"Drug activity is escalating; violence is escalating," he said. "It's
just getting out of hand."