A 25-year-old man who was allegedly acting in a threatening manner in the parking lot of a closed Kingston shopping mall was shot and wounded by a Kingston police officer early Tuesday, according to police and Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz.
In a statement, Cruz said the incident occurred around 3 a.m. at the Kingston Collection when a security guard called 911 to report the man “acting threatening and erratically.”
Kingston police identified the man later Tuesday as Alexander Bakutis of Plymouth.
“The guard reported that [Bakutis] allegedly brandished a large knife and told the guard to get out of the vehicle,” police said in a statement.
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Kingston police responded to the plaza parking lot, where they found Bakutis “near the entrance of the old Sears parking lot" with "a large knife in a sheath on his hip,” police said.
Investigators later recovered a knife and other evidence from the scene, police said.
Bakutis ignored officers’ verbal commands, police said. Officers tried to get Bakutis to cooperate through non-lethal tactics, but he continued to “escalate his threatening behavior,” police said.
Fearing for their safety and that of others, police pulled out their guns and an officer shot Bakutis once in the shoulder, the department said.
Bakutis was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital and then flown to Boston in a medical helicopter, police said. Cruz said he had been taken to Boston Medical Center with non-life-threatening wounds.
He is in custody and is charged with three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, police said. He is scheduled to be arraigned remotely in Plymouth District Court on Wednesday.
The officer who shot Bakutis, a 15-year veteran of the department, was taken to a hospital “for precautionary reasons” but was uninjured and released on Tuesday, police said.
The officer was placed on administrative leave while State Police detectives from Cruz’s office investigate the shooting, police said. Kingston police are cooperating with that investigation, the department said.
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"Interviews are being conducted as we speak and this is a very active and ongoing investigation,'' Cruz said.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him @jeremycfox.