A 48-year-old man was shot and killed in Dorchester by a Boston police officer early Saturday morning after he stabbed another officer in the torso, according to investigators.
Boston officers responded to a report of screams in the area of 22 Glendale St. around 2:40 a.m., Superintendent-in-chief Gregory Long told reporters about 5:15 a.m. at a press conference held at the scene.
When they arrived, officers encountered a man, later identified by Boston police as Richard Ortiz, brandishing a knife, Long said.
“During this encounter, the male suspect stabbed one of the responding officers in the upper torso,” Long said. “Another officer who was on scene discharged his weapon towards the suspect, striking the suspect.”
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Long said the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. Two officers were taken to local area hospitals, Long said.
The investigation is being led by the Suffolk district attorney’s office, which provided a recording of the press conference.
The officer who was stabbed suffered serious, but not life-threatening wounds, according to a statement from the Suffolk district attorney’s office late Saturday morning.
The other officer was treated and released from the hospital, according to Sergeant Detective John Boyle, a police department spokesman. Ortiz’s last known address was in Revere.
By 10 a.m. Saturday, the scene at Glendale Street had been cleared. A group of about 20 people stood on the sidewalk about halfway up the block, talking among themselves.
On the opposite sidewalk, candles were clustered by a street light.
Around noon, a man who identified himself as the victim’s brother, said his brother was his idol.
“There ain’t no words to describe him,” he said. “I idolized him since I was a kid.”
The man, who told reporters his name was Jimmy, said Ortiz was a father of four who frequently traveled to his native Puerto Rico. Ortiz was a grandfather to nine or 10 children, and the second oldest of four siblings, Jimmy said.
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“He had a lot planned,” Jimmy said.
A woman who declined to provide her name said she has lived in Glendale Street for five years, and awoke to the sound of people screaming and crying around 3 a.m. Saturday.
The woman, who works as a pharmacy technician, said she heard sirens and thought she was dreaming, until she saw the police presence later in the morning.
“That stuff happens all the time over here,” she said. “There’s violence, there’s shootings. ... I want to see everyone being safe.”
Another neighbor, who also declined to give her name, said she heard about five gunshots, which woke her up around 2:30 a.m.
The investigation remained very active Saturday, said Boyle, who declined to release the names of the officers involved in the shooting.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, in a statement posted to Twitter late Saturday morning, said she was briefed on the shooting and will ensure transparency as the investigation develops.
“I’m praying for a speedy recovery for the officers involved. My thoughts are with their loved ones & everyone impacted by the trauma of violence,” Wu said.
City Council President Ed Flynn thanked police in a statement and said his thoughts and prayers were with the officers at the scene of the shooting, as well as the families and neighbors who were “impacted by this traumatic event.” He said violence against police officers is unacceptable.
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Larry Calderone, the president of the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association, said in a statement officers have been attacked, shot, and stabbed over the last several months.
“Doing more with less remains a recipe for disaster. We need to hire more officers and we need to do it now before another officer gets hurt, injured, or, God forbid, worse,” he said in the statement.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com. Charlie McKenna can be reached at charlie.mckenna@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @charliemckenna9.