The Lancaster city man shot and killed by a police officer Friday morning was running toward a bystander while armed with a machete, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Luis Alex Fuentes, 39, of the 400 block of South Plum Street, died several hours after being shot once in the back on his street, according to the DA’s office and the county coroner’s office.
In an update Monday, the DA’s office said, “Fuentes was in close proximity to the bystander and posed an imminent threat when the shot was fired. The shot immediately incapacitated Fuentes. Fuentes had ignored repeated commands from officers to drop the machete before he ran towards the bystander.”
The shooting happened shortly after police responded to a bank robbery by a man armed with a machete at Fulton Bank, 860 S. Duke St. The robbery was reported around 10:15 a.m.
Fuentes fled the bank in a vehicle, and police followed him to the 400 block of South Plum Street, where he got out of the vehicle and refused commands to stop.
Fuentes apparently hinted at what he planned to do in a series of Facebook posts in the hours before he entered the bank.
At 7 a.m., Fuentes posted, “Soon you guys are gonna see me on national TV and that means the world it’s gonna be funny.”
Forty minutes later, he posted, “Being a nice guy doesn’t always work But I’ll show you how nice I am!”
Those followed two posts marked with profanity made shortly before 7 a.m. that referenced violence, including killing people in law enforcement and the military.
A woman who identified herself as Fuentes’ mother on Monday said she was unable to talk about what happened, but said her son was a good person who had a mental illness for which he took medication.
She did not specify what the illness was, but said she might talk later and took a reporter’s business card.
A Jan. 1 post on Fuentes’ Facebook page read, “feeling blessed at Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital.”
The DA’s office continues to investigate whether the shooting was justified. The office’s investigations into other police shootings in recent years have generally taken a couple of weeks to complete.
Earlier homicide unrelated
Law enforcement also continue to investigate an unrelated fatal stabbing that also took place Friday in Lancaster, though the DA’s office had no comment on the status of that investigation Monday.
In that case, Matthew John Hill, 40, of the 500 block of Woodward Street, was stabbed sometime Friday morning at a home in the first block of West Farnum Street.
Police responded to the house around 6 a.m. Paramedics tried to treat Hill, but his injuries were beyond lifesaving measures, according to police.
A woman who answered the door at the Farnum Street house shut the door when a LNP — LancasterOnline reporter identified himself. At least one police officer was inside the house.
Outside the house, more than a dozen glass prayer candles formed a makeshift memorial at the base of a tree. A red ribbon and red flowers were tied around the tree, along with a heart-shaped balloon that said, “I love you.”
Hill was sentenced to at least 7 years in federal prison in 2015 after pleading guilty to robbing a Berks County bank in November 2013 with another Lancaster man. Hill also was accused of trying to rob a York County bank.
In August 2006, a city police officer shot Hill in the leg outside a bar on South Prince Street while Hill was pointing a loaded gun at a man he’d been in a fight with.
The two homicides are the first and second of the year in Lancaster County.
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