OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma City police officer was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder in the shooting of a suicidal man who had doused himself in lighter fluid and was trying to set himself on fire.

District Attorney David Prater filed the charge against Sergeant Keith Sweeney and listed an alternative charge of first-degree manslaughter in the Nov. 15 killing of 29-year-old Dustin Pigeon. An affidavit by a police investigator concluded that Pigeon was unarmed and didn’t pose a threat to responding officers when Sweeney shot him.

Court documents didn’t list an attorney for Sweeney.

The investigation into the shooting was conducted the same way as any other investigation, said police Captain Bo Mathews.

Police said Sweeney and another officer responded to a call about a suicidal person and found Pigeon trying to ignite himself with lighter fluid and a lighter in a courtyard surrounded by homes. Police said the other officer shot Pigeon with a bean bag, to no effect, before Sweeney fatally shot him.

Pigeon’s shooting was among several Oklahoma cases this year where law officers confronted mentally distressed or suicidal subjects that resulted in fatal outcomes.

Earlier in November near Lindsay, about 45 miles south of Oklahoma City, a man was burned beyond recognition when he reentered a gasoline soaked van after being shot by police with a stun gun. Police said Dana Dean Carrothers, 52, had been reported missing and was suicidal.

In June, three Tulsa law enforcement officers fatally shot a 29-year-old knife-wielding man, Joshua Barre, while trying to pick him up for a mental health issue.

Associated Press