May 8—HIGH POINT — A High Point Police Department officer shot and killed a man who police say approached him while holding a rifle Monday morning at a house in the northwest part of the city.

Police did not release the names of the man or the officer Monday. Police Chief Travis Stroud said the officer has been with the High Point Police Department for "several years."

No one else was injured.

Stroud said officers received a call shortly before 10:15 a.m. about a man at a house in the 3900 block of Heidi Drive who was in a rage and tearing up the home. The caller had been inside the house with the man but left to call 911.

When officers went to the house, an officer went to a patio door at the back of the house, stood outside and talked with the 30-year-old man inside the house, Stroud told reporters at a media briefing in the parking lot of Tabernacle Baptist Church on Johnson Street, which is near the house.

After a short conversation, the man moved away from the door and returned holding a scoped rifle. The officer shot the man and then immediately entered the house to begin CPR.

The man was pronounced dead at the house, Stroud said.

Police would not say Monday whether the man pointed the rifle at the officer or fired it.

There is body camera footage of the shooting, but Stroud said it's too early in the investigation to say whether it might be publicly released or when that could be.

The State Bureau of Investigation has been contacted to investigate the shooting, which is protocol when an officer shoots someone, he said. The officer has been put on administrative duty, which is also standard procedure.

The last fatal shooting by a High Point Police Department officer took place in March 2020 at an apartment complex on Westchester Drive, where a man had been behaving erratically and had fired gunshots from inside an apartment through the front door. Police forced their way in, and the man approached with a gun and refused orders to drop it, police said.

pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul