JACKSONVILLE, Ark.—An armed man who was killed by police in a nearly five-hour standoff had been “troubled” after he suffered a head injury years ago and moved in with his parents, the man’s pastor says.

Steven Smith, 45, was shot by an officer Monday when Smith emerged from his home armed after fitfully exchanging gunfire with police, Capt. Charles Jenkins, a spokesman for the Jacksonville police, said Tuesday.

Hours earlier, Smith had opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle on officers as they arrived at his house after a resident called police to complain that someone was shooting bottle rockets in the neighborhood, Jenkins said. Smith holed up in the home, occasionally talking with officers on a cell phone.

During the ordeal, a police officer suffered a superficial injury when a bullet ricocheted off a tree and struck his shoulder. Smith’s father also was injured, “maybe by a physical altercation,” and was treated at a hospital and released, Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the officer who fired the fatal shot was placed on administrative leave with pay. “We have every confidence that the investigation will show this was a justifiable shooting,” he said.

Police were trying to determine what caused Smith to take up the weapon and fire at neighborhood property and police. The Rev. Les Farling, Smith’s pastor at St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Jacksonville, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Smith had suffered a head injury in a car accident about eight years ago and had spent about a year in a hospital bed. Farling described Smith as “very quiet and troubled,” frustrated by his diminished mental capacity.

“We’ve talked numerous times,” Farling said.

Jenkins said police believe Smith also had been under psychiatric care. He said Smith had some traffic violations but no criminal record.

During the standoff, police blocked entrances to the neighborhood and advised residents to stay indoors. Students at Jacksonville High School, about two miles away, were not allowed to leave the campus and no one was allowed to enter the buildings.

Neighbors told the newspaper Smith had lived with his father, Walter Smith, a retired Air Force colonel, and his mother, Joann Smith, a school teacher. They described him as a quiet man who helped his parents in the yard and took daily walks around the neighborhood, stopping to exchange small talk every once in a while.

“He was a real nice person,” neighbor Linda Simmons said. “I don’t know what happened.”