Ridgefield (AP) - Police are defending as a response to an apparent threat the fatal shooting of the founder and president of a Connecticut military museum at his home.

State Police said Sunday that officers were responding to an emergency call on Friday reporting a possible domestic incident involving John Valluzzo, head of the Military Museum of Southern New England in Danbury.

Ridgefield officers "attempted to order" Valluzzo to disarm and put down his weapon, State Police said on Sunday. He "refused to comply with the officers' orders" and raised the weapon toward police "and caused a Ridgefield officer to discharge his service weapon," hitting the 75-year-old Valluzzo, State Police said.

No other details were immediately available. Police have not identified the officer involved in the shooting.

The museum called Valluzzo's death at the start of the Memorial Day weekend a "senseless tragedy."

"Sorrow fills our hearts at this sad moment," the museum said on its website. "The news of the untimely death of John Valluzzo comes as a great shock to all who knew him. His departure was sudden, unexpected and particularly distressing."

The Hearst Connecticut Media Group reports (http://bit.ly/16Ykwq9 ) that Valluzzo was a decorated Korean War veteran and founded the Military Museum of Southern New England in 1995.