Durham officer shoots man in head while responding to 911 call

Chief Jose Lopez said that Officer Brian K. Johnson was responding around 2:15 a.m. to the call in the 1507 Mathison Street after someone with a child called 911 reporting that they thought a man was shooting at them.

When police arrived, Johnson told the man several times in both English and Spanish to drop his weapons, but the man did not, Lopez said. Johnson fired at least one shot, hitting the man in the head. He was being treated for a life-threatening injury at a local hospital.

No one else was injured.

Lopez did not release the identity of the man who was shot, and he couldn't provide details about what might have prompted him to be shooting.

"There's no explanation as to what started it or why it happened," Lopez said. "I think that will come out."

Almarosa Castillo-Jimenez said she made the 911 call after someone started shooting at her and her baby while she was in a nearby yard talking with a friend.

"We stepped behind the backyard, and a person with white T-shirt started shooting," she said. "He aimed with a gun and fired a shot to us from the apartment upstairs"

Castillo said they ran and hid behind a car and called 911.

The State Bureau of Investigation and Durham Police Department's Professional Standards Division are looking into the shooting, which is standard procedure in an officer-involved shooting.

Johnson, who has been with the police department since 2003, is on paid administrative leave.