L.A. deputy fatally shoots man armed with two 12-inch kitchen knives

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 40-year-old man Sunday who authorities said walked toward him and another deputy while carrying two 12-inch kitchen knives.

The shooting occurred about 9 a.m. when deputies responded to a call about a burglary in progress in the 900 block of Durfee Avenue in South El Monte, said Lt. John Corina with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The owner of a commercial building had called authorities after seeing people trespassing on the boarded-up property.

When deputies arrived, they saw a man standing on the sidewalk across from the building with a backpack. As the two deputies approached the man, he dropped his backpack and started walking away from them, Corina said.

The deputies called out at the man to stop, but he kept walking and began to cross the street. Once the man got to the middle of the street, Corina said, he turned around and started toward the deputies, who saw that he was carrying two knives, one in each hand.

With their guns drawn, the deputies ordered him to stop.

“He didn’t stop, and that’s when the shooting occurred,” Corina said, adding that just one deputy opened fire.

The man, who was not named, was struck twice and collapsed in the street, where paramedics pronounced him dead. Authorities recovered the knives.

Investigators don’t believe the man was involved in the trespassing incident at the commercial building.

“We don’t really know what his role in all this was,” Corina said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is reviewing the incident, as is customary with deputy-involved shootings.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek