Washington (CNN) Mayor Pete Buttigieg altered his presidential campaign schedule on Sunday to return to South Bend, Indiana, and respond to an officer-involved shooting that occurred in the city early on Sunday morning.

Buttigieg, flanked by the city's police chief and the head of South Bend's Common Council, held a news conference on Sunday evening, where he explained how lessons he learned from past officer-involved shootings guided him to get in front of cameras as soon as possible to reassure the city.

"One of the reasons we're communicating upfront right now is because of lessons learned from members of the community," Buttigieg said when he was asked about receiving criticism early in his tenure for his handling of other officer-involved shootings. "We've had prior cases of use of force incidents and officer-involved shootings where I hesitated, frankly, to get in front of cameras because we didn't know very much, and it was out of our hands."

He added: "What I was told by people in the community is that it is important to open channels of communication to try to be clear on where the city is, even if we don't find ourselves in a position to be able to say or do much right away."

The shooting, according to the mayor's office, happened early on Sunday morning after officers "responded to a call for service regarding a person breaking into vehicles."

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