Police identify robbery suspect shot dead by Lynn police officer

Authorities have identified a robbery suspect who was shot and killed by police in Lynn during a confrontation early Tuesday.

Police shot Michael McInnis, 41, of Malden on the Lynnway around 4 a.m., after police received a call about a robbery at a Gulf gas station on Commercial Street, the Essex County district attorney said.

McInnis allegedly told the station clerk he had a gun, and had his hands in his pockets during the robbery, where he made away with $150, police said. When two Lynn Police officers arrived, they confronted the man, who they believed to be armed, and ordered him to take his hands out of his pockets, WHDH reported.

“The individual had his hands in his pockets. The officers ordered him to show his hands. He refused to do so and continued to come at the officers,” Police Chief Kevin Coppinger told reporters during a news conference.

At some point, one of the officers discharged his weapon twice, striking McInnis in the upper torso,”

“McInnis refused to comply with numerous requests by the officers to show his hands,” Carrie Kimball Monahan, spokeswoman for Essex County district attorney’s office, said.

He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. No one else was injured.

The Essex County district attorney’s office and State Police will investigate the shooting, Kimball Monahan said that can sometimes take as long as a year.

The attorney general’s office will not name the police officers involved until it conducts a preliminary investigation.