Man Whose Threats Appeared Online Shot

A man who threatened to kill police in an online video was shot dead as he tried to run down officers in his car, law enforcement officials have said.

Police in suburban Philadelphia say the man was wanted for threatening to kill officers and FBI agents in the video.

They said he was killed on Tuesday because he appeared to be preparing to accelerate at officers manning a blockade.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said the officers feared for their lives and "did what they had to do".

NYPD officers Wenjian Liu (L) and Rafael Ramos were shot earlier this month

He said five officers fired at the man and no officers were injured.

Police said they began following the man after he left a home in nearby Clifton Heights.

They said when officers stopped him at an intersection and ordered him out of the car, he reversed and slammed into a police vehicle and then prepared to run over other officers.

Officers opened fire, killing the man, Supt Chitwood said. The man did not fire at police, and Supt Chitwood said he did not know if the man had a weapon.

The shooting comes little more than a week after a man who made similar threats shot two New York Police Department officers dead in their patrol car and then killed himself in a subway station.

Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were ambushed on a Brooklyn street as they sat in their marked car on 20 December.

Protests after a white police officer cleared of the chokehold death of Eric Garner

Police death protests

Their killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley had indicated in online posts that he was motivated by the high-profile killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, including the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York.

Decisions by grand juries not to indict the officers involved in the killings of Mr Brown and Mr Garner sparked protests around the US, with demonstrators lying down in the streets in so-called "die-ins".