Police: Man shot to protect child

Monday, July 23, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

A 36-year-old man remains in critical condition this morning after being shot several times early Saturday by a Metro Police sergeant.

Police said the man raised a knife and moved toward a child.

Ronnie Russell was shot in the chest by Sgt. Richard Barela about 12:30 a.m. Saturday at a home on Del Amo Drive, near Charleston and Lamb boulevards, police say.

Police went to the house after a woman called 911 saying her husband was threatening her and her two children with a hammer.

The woman met police at the front door of her home and said that her husband had armed himself with a knife and had locked himself in a bedroom with her child, Capt. Dennis Cobb said.

The husband confronted the police at a bedroom door and refused officers' orders to drop the knife, Cobb said.

The husband began backing into the bedroom, and an officer fired a shotgun that fires beanbags and hit the husband in the torso, but failed to stop him. The husband was momentarily stunned by the beanbags, but then raised the knife and moved toward the 5-year-old girl in the bedroom, Cobb said.

Barela, an Metro officer for eight years, then fired several rounds from his handgun striking the Russell and stopping his advance, Cobb said.

The child was not injured, and the husband remains in critical condition at University Medical Center.