The front page of the offense report, generated within hours of the shooting, indicates that the officers were searching Butler before an officer discharged his weapon. The brief summary says that officers "attempted to pat the suspect down for officer safety" when "the suspect resisted and pulled a pistol out of his pocket." The officers struggled in an attempt to take the gun away before the suspect "turned the firearm towards one of the officers who then shot the suspect."

But according to an HPD news release from public affairs dated hours later on Dec. 30, Officer C.D. Edwards and his partner were on routine patrol about 7:30 p.m. in the 3800 block of Jensen when they encountered a man riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road without a head lamp. The officers stopped to investigate and called the man toward them.

As the man, later identified as Butler, was being questioned, he began to put his hands in his pants pockets. Butler did not comply with officer requests not to reach into his pockets, police said. He then "quickly reached" into his right front pants pocket and attempted to pull out what is described as a revolver. He did not follow commands to drop the gun. At some point, Butler — who is a felon — turned the gun toward Edwards, police said.

"Fearing for his life and that of his fellow officer, Officer Edwards discharged his duty weapon at least once and struck Butler," the release said. "Butler was then taken to the hospital where he died."