For the first time in its modern history, police officers in Iceland carried out a fatal shooting early Monday with an exchange of gunfire with a man reported to be firing at cars from his apartment window, The Los Angeles Times reported. Two cops were wounded in the shootout, which followed a 5 a.m. emergency call from neighbors, as reported by Euronews.
The 59-year-old who was killed was from eastern Reykjavik was taken to an area where he died of his wounds, news reports said.
"All available members of the police force were deployed, and they tried to subdue him, but it was not successful," Reykjavik Metropolitan Police Commissioner Stefan Eiriksson told a press conference, according to local media website Visir.
"The man began to shoot out the window of the apartment and it was decided to take action," Eriksson added.
"Police regret this incident and would like to extend their condolences to the family of the man," Icelandic Police Chief Haraldur Johannessen told reporters in Reykjavik, according to the BBC.
The incident marks the first gun-related fatality the first in over two hundred years in Iceland, since the time of the Vikings. "Police are generally unarmed in Iceland except for the special forces unit that provided backup in Monday's incident," BBC reported.
"There are about 90,000 guns registered among Iceland's 315,000 people, making it the 15th in the world per capita gun ownership, GunPolicy.org reports," as reported by The Los Angeles Times.
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