Police in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night fatally shot a suspect who was armed only with a stick — and witnesses claim that they tried to warn the officers that the man could not hear their commands because he was deaf.

Local news station KOCO reports that Oklahoma City police officers were investigating a hit-and-run accident when they encountered a car that matched the description witnesses gave about the vehicle involved in the incident.

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Upon approaching the vehicle, they found a man walking around outside of it carrying a stick. One officer deployed a Taser on the man, while another officer fired his gun, fatally killing the suspect.

According to local news station News9, witnesses tried telling officers that the suspect, whose name has not been publicly released yet, was deaf — and thus could not hear them. Police, however, say they have yet to confirm whether the suspect was actually hearing impaired.

“He wasn’t even a bad guy,” wrote one woman who knew the man on Facebook, per the Daily Mail. “The officers shot a deaf man after the officer was told by several people he was deaf.”

Watch KOCO’s vide about the incident below.