OPD chief: Man fatally shot by officers had 2 handguns

A man fatally shot by Orlando police late Tuesday ignored officers’ commands and menaced them while armed with two handguns, Chief John Mina said Wednesday afternoon.

Mina said he reviewed bodyworn-camera footage of the incident, which left him confident the officers’ shooting of 34-year-old Dravious Burch was appropriate.

“Absolutely, no doubt in my mind, they were justified, based on what I saw,” Mina said.

The Police Department said the officers were responding to a report of a woman screaming at the Park Central apartment complex on City Street about 11:15 p.m. when Burch confronted them.

Before they arrived, Mina said officers were told Burch fired a shot inside the residence. The man confronted officers in the parking lot of the apartment complex holding two handguns, Mina said.

Four officers fired shots, an agency spokesman said Wednesday morning.

The officers were “clearly giving him commands” but Burch continued “walking toward them, putting them in fear for their lives,” Mina said.

“I don’t know if he had a death wish, or what,” Mina said.

The names of the officers involved have not been released.

Mina said the screaming woman was Burch’s wife. His two kids, ages 13 and 9, were also home at the time, the police chief said. It’s unclear where inside the apartment Burch fired the shot, Mina said.

The wife and kids were not hurt.

Burch died at the scene. His weapons have been recovered, Mina said.

Mina credited the person who called police with helping to intervene in a potentially dangerous domestic violence situation.

“Who knows, if that caller had not called, what would have happened to that mother and those children,” Mina said.

At a press conference, Mina stressed the danger and frequency of domestic violence incidents, saying his agency has historically responded to about eight each day and made an average of 1,500 domestic violence arrests per year.

In June, Officer Kevin Valencia was shot and critically wounded by Gary Wayne Lindsey while responding to a domestic violence call at the man’s apartment in west Orlando. Lindsey killed four children inside the apartment before taking his own life during a standoff with police, authorities said.

Police have not determined the circumstances that led to the dispute between Burch and his wife.

“These are some of the most dangerous types of calls that we respond to,” Mina said. “We’ve seen that over and over and over