Woman shot by Weymouth police after refusing orders to drop knife

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — Police say a woman who was hospitalized after being shot by a Weymouth police officer on Sunday morning was armed with a knife.

Officers responded to a 911 call from a "frantic mother" saying her daughter was "trying to kill herself with a knife," a press release from Weymouth police says.

The 46-year-old "hysterical" woman confronted the officer at the front door of the King Avenue apartment with a "large knife", the statement says.

"The officer was forced to back away towards the street and the suspect followed him brandishing the knife while ignoring his orders to drop the knife," the statement reads. "The officer fired once striking the suspect in the abdomen area."

The woman was treated by police at the scene before being rushed into surgery at South Shore Hospital, where she is under arrest on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. She is expected to survive.

A knife was visible on the ground beside an evidence marker as police investigated the incident.

Neighbors, many of whom have known the woman for decades, said she suffers from mental illness, but they have never had a problem with her.

"She struggled with mental health, but that's within herself," said a woman who declined to give her name, but said the injured woman is like a second mother to her. "She was a threat to herself, nobody else, and they could've done anything besides take a shot."

"I'm emotional about it, because I don't think she should've been shot," said neighbor Jacqui Fuller. "But then again, I'm not in his shoes."

Cox Media Group