St. Paul police say officers fatally shot a man Thursday after they were called to “a violent domestic” in which the man fired a gun at a woman.

Responding officers met the woman, who called 911, down the block from the incident in the 400 block of Earl Street in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood about 6 p.m., according to Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The woman reported the 28-year-old man shot at her two times and threatened to kill her children, according to emergency radio traffic posted by MN Police Clips. She was uninjured and said the five children were in the home with him.

The woman also reported the man had been doing cocaine and drinking since the day before, according to the dispatch reports.

Officers went to the home, made sure the children were safe and looked for the suspect, Ernster said.

Police tried calling the man to come out of the home and saw children looking out an upstairs window, according to the dispatches captured by MN Police Clips. The children came out of the home and said their father had left.

As officers searched the house, police outside reported seeing a man who matched the suspect’s description behind a garage, according to the emergency radio traffic.

“Shots fired, shots fired!,” an officer dispatched.

“Suspect is down, suspect is down, still moving,” another officer reported.

Police reported they were taking him into custody and getting paramedics to him, according to the dispatches.

At a Thursday evening press conference, Ernster did not detail what led officers to fire their guns, saying any additional information would be released by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the agency conducting the investigation. A gun was located at the scene, said Ernster, who did not indicate where it was found.

“During the search, the suspect was located,” he said. “As officers contacted the suspect and at some point during this incident, shots were fired and the suspect was struck.”

Paramedics, who were standing by in the area, were immediately summoned to render aid, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene, Ernster said. Police have not released the man’s name.

“Where the officers encountered him, how many shots, all of this is still trying to be determined through the investigation and those answers will come from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension,” Ernster said. “The community has asked for independent, third-party investigations of officer-involved shootings. We are trying to honor that and let them conduct their investigation without encroaching upon it.”

St. Paul police recently began wearing body cameras and several were on during the incident, Ernster said.

“What I can tell you, from an officer perspective involved in these type of situations, especially involving children, is how do we keep these children safe in this situation?” Ernster said. “No officer ever wants to be involved in a situation like this and we are doing everything we can to support the officers. … Our hearts also go out to the children involved in this incident, the woman who was shot at and anyone who was touched by this tragic situation.”

Ernster didn’t have information about whether the young children witnessed what happened.

Police have been called to the address twice in the last year — one was about a disturbance and the other drunkenness, Ernster said.

A man who lives across the street from the shooting said a man, woman and children reside at the home. He described the block as usually peaceful.

At the scene Thursday, officers were seen taking away five children. As they waited for car seats to arrive to transport them, four of the children were playing and an officer was holding an infant.

Later in the evening, a small group of activists gathered in the area. One woman was carrying a sign that said, “Stop police brutality.”