Police: Officer shot knife-wielding man who was irate over cable and internet outage

A knife-wielding man who lunged at a Philadelphia police officer trying to break up an argument between him and roommates over disruption to cable and internet service at their Grays Ferry home was shot by the officer early Saturday morning, police said.

The 57-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, remains at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in critical but stable condition, police said.

According to authorities, officers around 1:43 a.m. responded to a call reporting a domestic disturbance on the 1200 block of South 29th Street, where the man lives with another man, 29, and two women, ages 30 and 56.

He was "irate regarding the television and internet not working, and attributed the problem to other occupants of the residence," police said in a written statement.

As two officers spoke with the shirtless man outside the house, a third went inside to try to defuse the situation, police said. At some point, all three officers were outside the house and the 57-year-old man went back inside.

Officers then heard the 29-year-old scream that the 57-year-old had armed himself with a knife, according to the police statement. The officers went back into the house and found the older male approaching the younger one with a folding knife, police said.

Two officers drew their Tasers and the third, who was closest to the 57-year-old, drew his gun and "repeatedly told" the man to drop the knife, according to the police statement.

When he moved quickly toward that officer, who has not been identified, the officer fired, striking the man once in the chest, police said. He dropped to the floor still holding the knife, they said.

It is the eighth officer-involved shooting in Philadelphia this year, according to the Police Department's website. As is standard protocol, the officer involved in the shooting will be placed on desk duty pending an investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Unit.