Baltimore police officers fatally shot a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle who exchanged fire with them on Thursday (July 14) on the city's West Side, a police spokesman said. <br /> <br />Four plainclothes officers on patrol heard gunfire at about 9:30 p.m. local time and responded to an apartment building where they found a man in a parking lot firing an AK-15 style weapon, a police spokesman said, during a news conference. <br /> <br />The unidentified man began firing at the officers. Two of the officers returned fire and struck the suspect, who later died, Smith said. <br /> <br />The incident comes a week after five police officers were killed during a Dallas protest by a sniper who told police during a standoff that he wanted to "kill white people" because of police killings of black people in the United States. <br /> <br />It was the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. <br /> <br />Whether the shooter in Baltimore was targeting police officers is unclear, according to police, who gave no other details about him. <br /> <br />After exchanging gunfire with the officers, the man fled into an apartment where he was later found with a wound to his upper chest. A weapon that appeared to be a AK-15 was found in a nearby woods, according to police. <br /> <br />The man was taken to a hospital where he died. No officers were injured in the shooting and the two officers who fired their weapons were placed on administrative duties, Smith said.
