New York, NY —

The police are defending Monday night's shooting that left an unarmed teen dead. Commissioner Ray Kelly says a preliminary review indicates that the 5 officers who fired did so within department guidelines. WNYC's Bob Hennelly reports.

REPORTER: According to police, the tragic chain events that lead to the death of Kyle Coppin Monday night actually started at noon when Coppin's mother Denise Owens had already called Interfaith Medical Center looking for help with her son. A detail, Kelly says, police learned after Coppin was shot 8 times.

KELLY: A psychologist from Interfaith later told detectives that Ms. Owens was afraid of her son who was not taking his medication.

REPORTER: An Interfaith Mobile Crisis team did respond to the Owens apartment at 6:30 pm, but the teen was not there, so they left. He returned home a half hour later when his mother made a call to 911 in which her son was heard saying at least 5 times he had a gun. Kelly says responding officers could not have anticipated Coppin's state of mind from the 911 call.

KELLY: Not based on the information that was given over the phone. There was no indication he was emotionally disturbed.

REPORTER: Police say during the incident Coppin lunged at them with 2 butcher knives. And at one point, asked for them to shoot him. They say he failed to heed several commands to lay down on the ground. After he was shot, police discovered the object they thought was a gun, was a hair brush. A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney confirmed that the office is investigating. For WNYC, I'm Bob Hennelly.