AURORA — Officers tried to reason with a naked, machete-wielding man Tuesday afternoon before he lunged at them with it and a carving knife, and an officer fatally shot him, police said.

The incident began at about 12:30 p.m., when the man’s family called 911 with concerns about his erratic behavior, police said.

Paramedics discovered the 55-year-old man naked and agitated when they arrived at the home in the 1600 block of South Buckley Way. They tried to talk with him, but he became more irate, retreating into a bedroom and emerging with the machete, said Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, an Aurora police spokeswoman.

The paramedics alerted police, who were aware of what they might be up against. Archived police radio transmissions indicate officers were called to handle a man who “possibly has dementia and is armed with a machete.”

Police ushered the man’s relatives outside before three officers approached the man, who was in a bedroom at the top of the stairs. Police said the officers tried unsuccessfully to communicate with him, then opted to kick in the door, at which point he lunged at them with the machete and the knife.

The man’s weapons struck two of the officers, leaving them cut and bruised but not badly hurt.

Fearing for their safety, one officer fired at least one shot, killing the man, Carlson said. The man’s name has not yet been released.

Neighbors said the family had lived in the rental property for about three weeks and were rarely seen. Detectives were questioning the man’s relatives at headquarters Tuesday evening, Carlson said.

Police also would not identify the three officers, except to describe them as experienced veterans of the force. One is a sergeant.

The officer who fired will be placed on paid leave while the Arapahoe County district attorney’s office investigates the use of force. Detectives from the city’s major-crimes unit and other squads remained on the scene for hours searching the home.

They also studied the siding of a home across a back alley, which had been pierced by a bullet. It appeared to have torn through the wall of the home on Buckley Way.

Philip Ballenger said he was playing video games and heard nothing before detectives knocked on his door, showed him the bullet hole and started asking questions.

“They told me they shot him,” but they said little else, Ballenger said.

Another neighbor said she heard muffled screams coming from the home but no gunfire. She was stunned when paramedics brought the man out on a stretcher.

The case was the second deadly shooting this year by Aurora police. Aurora officers killed six people in separate incidents in 2011 and one in 2008.

“We’re extensively trained, and through our training, you learn to protect your life and the lives of others,” Carlson said. “If an immediate threat presents itself, you have to deal with that threat, and sometimes that means lethal force.”

Sadie Gurman: 303-954-1661, sgurman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/sgurman

Fatal Aurora police shootings

2012

November 27: Aurora police shot and killed a naked 55-year-old man who was wielding a machete and knife inside his home in the 1600 block of South Buckley Way.

May 4: A man who was firing a shotgun in a residential neighborhood at East 28th Avenue and Atchison Street then aimed the weapon at police and was shot and killed by officers.

2011

September 29: Jarome Blackmon, 21, was shot and killed by officers in the 14200 block of East Arkansas Drive as they investigated a complaint of an argument in the street. Police said Blackmon pointed a gun at officers. It was the eighth officer-involved shooting of the year and the sixth fatality.

July 23: A fifth fatality occurred when officers shot Juan Contreras, 59, in the 12100 block of East Colfax Avenue during an extortion attempt. Contreras was shot three times after punching an undercover officer and reaching for a knife.

March 20: Police responded to a possible theft in progress at a car-storage lot in the 400 block of North Laredo Street and found three men who tried to drive off. Officers shot and killed Oleg Gidenko, 22. The two other suspects were injured.

March 17: A man fleeing a traffic stop shot and wounded a police officer in the leg. He then took a family of four hostage for several hours near East 16th Avenue and Florence Street. He was shot and killed by police after exiting the apartment with a handgun.

March 14: Daniel Garcia, 25, was shot and killed by police in the 14200 block of East First Drive after taking two hostages inside a vehicle. Police moved in after hearing gunfire. A hostage and a police officer were injured.

February 10: Police shot and killed Richard Arreola, 25, who was under surveillance in a drug investigation. He was armed as he approached an officer near the 1400 block of North Macon Street.

2008

December 2: Brandon Winn, 18, was shot and killed by an officer at his home in the 2500 block of South Kittredge Way. Winn was wanted in connection with the theft of a video game at gunpoint. Police shot him after he allegedly pointed a gun at them.

Compiled by the Denver Post Research Library