Double amputee in wheelchair shot dead by Houston police

(Reuters) - A double amputee in a wheelchair was shot and killed by Houston police after threatening an officer with what turned out to be a pen, local media reported on Sunday.

The shooting took place early Saturday morning at a home for the mentally ill. An employee called police to report that resident Brian Claunch was acting aggressively against a caretaker who refused to give him a cigarette and a soda, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Claunch, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, had lost an arm and a leg in a train accident and was sitting in a wheelchair. He trapped a policeman in a corner with his wheelchair and tried to stab him with an object later identified as a silver pen, the Chronicle said.

When Claunch refused police orders to drop the object, the trapped officer's partner shot and killed him, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton; editing by Philip Barbara)