The 27-year-old shot to death Friday evening by a Rothesay police officer was wielding a knife and trying to slash police, according to the mayor of the New Brunswick town.

Mayor Bill Bishop, who was briefed on the shooting, said the incident was recorded on small cameras used by the force to track the actions of its officers – tape that could prove useful in the investigation of the incident.

He said police were called to Shipyard Road around 7 p.m. and found a highly agitated man whose parents had fled the home.

Bishop said officers first tried to calm the man, but they didn’t succeed.

"He started waving knives and took a slash at one of the officers and missed and continued that until the point where the Rothesay police felt their lives were in danger and that’s when the officer shot the man," Bishop said.

Bishop said local police have had run-ins with the man before, and he’s become violent.

The RCMP major crimes unit has been called into to investigate what happened.

"In this case I’m very confident that they acted in the proper manner," Bishop said.

The man who was shot was taken to Saint John Regional Hospital, where he died.

The shooting happened outside the home, according to Steve Palmer, deputy chief of the Rothesay Regional Police Force.