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Man Killed by Flagstaff Police After Morning Confrontation

Ryan Heinsius

UPDATE, 5:40 p.m. MST:

Authorities have identified a man they say was killed by police after firing a series of shots in Flagstaff and threatening people.

The shooting of 26-year-old Verl Bedonie happened during the Monday morning commute in a residential area a few blocks from downtown Flagstaff.

Police Sgt. Margaret Bentzen says Bedonie repeatedly ignored commands to drop his weapon.

At one point, she says Bedonie tried to carjack a vehicle and held the driver at gunpoint, demanding he be taken to Phoenix.

She says an undercover officer in an unmarked vehicle rammed the car to stop it.

Bentzen says two officers fired the fatal shots at Bedonie after he raised his gun toward police after getting out of the vehicle.

No one else was injured. The two officers are on standard administrative leave.  

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UPDATE , 10 a.m. MST:  

Flagstaff police say a man is dead after being shot by police after the man fired a handgun in a neighborhood while walking from a parking garage on the edge of the campus of Northern Arizona University.

Sgt. Margaret Bentzen at least one officer shot the unidentified man Monday morning during a confrontation near a busy intersection within a few blocks of the campus and downtown Flagstaff.

Bentzen says the incident began unfolding when officers went to a hotel on the northern edge of the NAU campus in response to reports of an armed man in the hotel's parking garage.

Bentzen said the man had a handgun and fired a series of shots as he walked through a residential neighborhood but that it's not immediately known if he was shooting at anyone or anything.

She says no one was injured from those shots. Police cordoned off the area to locate evidence.

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