Buttigieg leaves campaign trail after shooting in South Bend

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said he abruptly changed his campaign schedule to return home to South Bend, Ind., where he serves as mayor, after a man died in a police-involved shooting.

The Associated Press reports Buttigieg returned to South Bend on Sunday and held a late-night press conference to address the incident.

“We will be striving to reach out to community members,” Buttigieg said, according to the AP, adding that a thorough investigation was underway after officers responded to reports early Sunday morning of a person going through cars.

{mosads}The St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the incident, told the AP that a police officer confronted the man in an apartment complex’s parking lot when the man approached the officer wielding a knife. The officer reportedly shot and killed the man, later identified as South Bend resident Eric Logan.

Buttigieg said Sunday he decided to return to South Bend following criticism from earlier in his mayoral tenure that he had failed to communicate with the community after other officer-involved shootings.

“One of the reasons we’re communicating upfront right now is because of lessons learned from members of the community,” he said, according to CNN. “We’ve had prior cases of use of force incidents and officer-involved shootings where I hesitated, frankly, to get in front of cameras because we didn’t know very much, and it was out of our hands.”

Buttigieg was slated to attend an LGBTQ gala put on by the Democratic National Committee on Monday in New York before changing his plans.

Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, will instead speak at the event.