Cityscape // Crime tape and police and firefighters in action are all too common in Richmond and other cities. Above, officers and police cars pack the intersection of 3rd and Main streets in Downtown around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday following the police shooting of a man wielding a large knife and an ax. Police Chief Alfred Durham said officers shot the man when he did not respond to commands to drop the weapons, and a Taser proved ineffective in stopping him. When the man attacked the officers, two fired, hitting him. The man, later identified as Alexander J. Schoessel, 23, of Chesterfield, was pronounced dead at 10:31 a.m. Tuesday at a Richmond hospital. Officer John Rotondi also was hit by friendly fire during the incident. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. Right, firefighters hose down a smoldering pile of driftwood Tuesday afternoon underneath a pedestrian bridge across the James River that connects Brown’s Island and Belle Isle in Downtown.
