An unclothed man allegedly armed with a large knife was shot and wounded by Boston police officers investigating a break-in at a Beacon Hill restaurant early Wednesday, police said.
Superintendent Paul McLaughlin, who leads the department’s investigative units, said officers from Area A-1 responded to 97 Mt. Vernon St. shortly before 6 a.m. after there was 911 call reporting a break-in.
He said the officers confronted the man in an alley behind the building and saw that he was armed with a “large knife,” McLaughlin said at an early morning press conference.
One officer discharged a Taser at the man but that had no effect on him, McLaughlin said. At least three police officers were in the alley and opened fire, striking the man multiple times, McLaughlin said.
Officers immediately provided first aid and the man was transported to a local hospital for treatment of what McLaughlin described as non-life threatening wounds.
The officers were also taken to local hospitals for observation, he said. They did not suffer physical injuries, he said.
McLaughlin declined to say how many shots were fired by the officers, citing the on-scene investigation that included searching the alley for ballistic evidence.
In response to a reporter’s question, McLaughlin confirmed that the man had broken into a restaurant — 1928 Beacon Hill is located there — and was smashing objects he found there. A photo of the restaurant showed the front door smashed and broken glass in the entry.
“It’s very early in the investigation so exactly what his motive was behind what he was doing, we don’t know, and we hope to find out,” he said. “I will confirm that he was unclothed at the time.”
The incident occurred near one of the city’s most prestigious addresses, Louisburg Square.
He said “there’s definitely indications of him being inside that location…As to exactly how he got in, what damage he might have caused all those things. we’re going to find that out in the next few hours.”
The incident remains under investigation by a BPD team that investigates police shootings, McLaughlin said.
Police initially closed multiple streets around the shooting scene, but Mt. Vernon St. has since reopened.
The man was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital following the shooting, according to the department’s dispatch transmissions.
The name and age of the man was not immediately available at Wednesday morning.
There was a major response by police to the Beacon Hill location, including a SWAT team that was called in to search the building, according to police dispatches.
According to Boston assessing records, 97 Mount Vernon is a 20-unit condo building with units assessed at $570,000 to $1.275 million.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com.
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