An officer with the Metropolitan Police Department fatally shot a man Wednesday afternoon in Southeast Washington, authorities said. While is not immediately clear what prompted the incident that occurred shortly after 4 p.m. in the 200 blocks of Orange Street SE, Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham said officers were following up on information “relative to some subjects who had guns in this area.” Newsman said that when they approached a vehicle, some of the individuals inside “fled on foot,” prompting one officer to “discharge his firearm.” “Uniformed police officers had information that there were guys in the neighborhood with guns, specifically,” Newsham said in a press conference. “That's what they were looking for and evidently that's what they found.”

The chief said that the victim they believe to be an adult male was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. “We believe the subject had a gun at the time,” Newman said, adding that officials recovered two firearms at the scene. According to NBC Washington, as Newman provided an update at the crime scene, community members yelled, “this is unacceptable” and “he was unarmed.” Black Lives Matter DC has said the group will be heading to the scene. “It’s a lot of info that needs to be gathered, but what we know with these incidents is what police say is not always the true story of what happened,” Anthony Green, organizer for Black Lives Matter DC, told the Washington Post.