John Harris Fatal Police Shooting: Chicago Cops Shoot Allegedly Armed Man In Garfield Park Apartment

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While responding to an early morning distress call in Garfield Park Thursday, Chicago police fatally shot a man allegedly armed with a semi-automatic weapon.

John Harris, 58, allegedly emerged from the room of an apartment in the 200 block of North Homan Avenue about 2:15 a.m. with a gun pointed at police, DNAinfo Chicago reports.

Police had come to the scene in response to a domestic incident involving a man with a gun, but the Sun-Times said police were waved off by Harris' girlfriend outside the home before another woman — believed to be the girlfriend's daughter — told cops Harris was inside with a gun.

According to WGN, a police spokesman said an officer shot Harris twice after he emerged from a bathroom with an automatic assault weapon raised which he refused to put down. Harris died at the scene.

Police officials did not specify the kind "assault weapon" Harris was holding, but said it could have been a semi-automatic pistol, according to DNAinfo. Another weapon was recovered from the scene, according to the department's statement.

The circumstances of Harris' death seem unusual for a man described by those who knew him as a "good man who never sought any trouble." Terry Terrell Strothers, 36, knew Harris and told DNAinfo, "He'd always go the other way from trouble. He taught me to do that."

No police were injured and the Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the man's death.