YOUNGSTOWN — An internal affairs investigation is underway, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating after a Youngstown police officer shot and killed a man after responding to the Dollar General, 1370 Belmont Ave., on Tuesday.

The officer was among emergency responders who went to the store for “a man who had stabbed himself and a woman inside the store,” according to a Youngstown Police Department news release issued Wednesday afternoon.

When officers arrived, they encountered a “man with an apparent stab wound, and a woman with a severe stab wound who was unresponsive,” the press release states. “During the encounter with the man, an officer discharged (his or her) firearm, which resulted in the unfortunate death of the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene,” the release states.

The names and ages of the man and woman were not being released Wednesday by Youngstown police or BCI.

“The woman was transported to St. Elizabeth (Youngstown Hospital) and remains in critical condition,” the release states. The hospital is about four blocks south of the store.

Two Youngstown police officers were placed on paid administrative leave, per policy, said Lt. Brian Butler, the department’s staff inspector and head of the internal affairs division. Only one discharged his or her firearm, Butler said.

Neither of the victims worked at the store, Butler confirmed Wednesday.

Steve Irwin, press secretary for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, responded to an emailed question by saying BCI was requested by Youngstown police to investigate the fatal shooting, and the agency is carrying out an investigation. He said no officers were injured, and the investigation is “active and ongoing.”

BCI investigates the “circumstances surrounding the shooting,” while the internal affairs investigation “reviews departmental policy,” according to the YPD press release.

Tuesday’s death is the third officer-involved killing in Youngstown in the past year.

On June 13, Mathue O’Malley, 27, was fatally wounded by Youngstown police about 1 a.m. at a home on South Maryland Avenue on the West Side. O’Malley died later at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

The shooting occurred as O’Malley exchanged gunfire with Youngstown police. No officers were injured, according to a Youngstown police press release.

Officers were dispatched to the home for a disturbance. When the first officer arrived, the officer “was immediately met with gunfire from a male inside the house,” the release states. O’Malley was shot in the exchange of gunfire that ensued.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation also was called to conduct an investigation into the circumstances of that shooting. And the Youngstown Police Department Internal Affairs Division also was carrying out an investigation into that episode. The “officer(s) involved were placed on administrative leave, pursuant to departmental policy,” the news release in that case stated.

Irwin said Wednesday the BCI investigation into the O’Malley killing “remains open and ongoing.”

The officer-involved killing before that was Oct. 12, 2023, when officers shot and killed Ricco A. Acevedo, 45, on Helena Avenue on the South Side after they responded to the location for a burglary in progress.

Capt. Brad Blackburn of the Youngstown Police Department said the morning of the shooting that when officers arrived at the house, they “found an individual in the house that did not have a right to be there. We had an officer-involved shooting at that point. The individual is deceased.”

The shooting took place just before 10 a.m. after police “encountered a male inside the home. An officer discharged their firearm during this incident, which resulted in the unfortunate death of the male, who succumbed from his injuries on scene,” the release stated.

A police report listed 33 officers who were involved in the episode in some way, such as patrol officers, detectives, internal affairs officers and Chief Carl Davis.

Acevedo “was giving false information to officers to avoid identifying himself,” the release stated. “Moments later (an) officer advised shots had been fired and he needed an ambulance and a supervisor on scene.”

The report listed Acevedo’s address as East Midlothian Boulevard in Boardman.

The officer or officers involved were placed on paid administrative leave “pursuant to departmental policy,” the release stated.

Irwin said the BCI investigation into that death was referred to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office, who then appointed the Attorney General’s Office’s Special Prosecutor’s Section to present the case to a grand jury, which reviewed the case but did not indict anyone.