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Deadly Police Shooting Of Bucks County Man Was 'Justified,' DA Says

Northampton Township police were "justified" when they killed 40-year-old Mark Chambers at his Churchville home last month, according to the District Attorney's Office. 

400 block of Elm Street, Churchville; Northampton Twp. police 

400 block of Elm Street, Churchville; Northampton Twp. police 

Photo Credit: Google Maps (Satellite)/Inset: Northampton Twp. Police

Authorities have claimed Chambers was brandishing a knife when officers shot him multiple times at his Elm Street home around 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, Daily Voice reported

Now, Bucks DA Matthew Weintraub says police were called by Chambers' mother after the 40-year-old cut his neck and threatened to jump from the roof. 

Police said they found him standing in the doorway holding the knife and commanded him to drop it "at least" 18 times. 

Then "without warning," authorities said Chambers "charged at them with a 12-inch knife" and three officers opened fire. 

He was taken to St. Mary's Hospital and pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds, prosecutors said. The entire incident lasted 35 seconds and was recorded on body camera, according to the District Attorney's Office. 

“I have concluded that [the officers] were reasonable in their individual beliefs that their lives were placed in clear and present danger by Mr. Chambers at the time that each of the three fired their service weapons at him, killing him," said DA Weintraub.

"l therefore conclude that [the officers] were justified in discharging their weapons and fatally shooting Mark Chambers." 

“By raising his knife into an attack position from mere feet away as he charged at the officers, despite all their repeated commands for him to drop his weapon, Mark Chambers created a situation in which all three officers had no other reasonable choice but to fire their weapons in defense of themselves, and of each other, in order to neutralize the deadly and imminent threat that Chambers posed to them all,” the DA wrote. 

The officers' names were not reported as they were not charged. 

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