Off-Duty Reserve Officer Fatally Shoots Suspected Car Thief : Canoga Park: Police say the man brandished a screwdriver. It is the area’s second killing in three days.

An off-duty reserve police officer shot and killed a suspected car thief who repeatedly charged at him with a screwdriver on a Canoga Park street early Tuesday, authorities said.

It was the second time in three days that an off-duty officer has shot and killed a man during a confrontation in Canoga Park.

In the latest incident, a man in his early 20s, whose identity has not been confirmed by police, died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center after being shot at 4:30 a.m. by Patrick Rudolf, 26, a reserve officer with the West Valley Division.

Angel Torres, 21, who was with the man at the time of the shooting, was arrested on suspicion of car theft. Police found numerous stolen auto parts at the Canoga Park house the two men shared.

Lt. William Hall, who heads the department’s team that investigates officer-involved shootings, said the initial inquiry indicates that Rudolf acted in self-defense when he fired once, hitting the man in the chest.

As a sworn reserve officer, Rudolf received the same police academy and field training as a full-time police officer and is legally permitted to carry his gun, Hall said.

Hall said the incident unfolded while Rudolf, who has been a reserve officer for two years, was driving home in his own car after working a patrol shift.

The reserve officer saw two men near a pickup truck and a Toyota Celica parked at Roscoe Boulevard at Irondale Avenue and became suspicious because the Toyota’s hood and fenders were missing, indicating the car had been stripped, Hall said.

Rudolf drove back toward the men to get the pickup truck’s license plate number, Hall said. But the two men apparently noticed that they had been spotted and sped off in the pickup truck.

Rudolf followed the truck for several blocks, attempting to get the plate number. The truck suddenly stopped at McNulty Avenue and Strathern Street and Rudolf almost rear-ended it. Hall said both the driver of the pickup and Rudolf then got out of their vehicles. Rudolf wore a T-shirt with a police badge printed on it and carried his service revolver.

“In English and Spanish, he told the man he was a police officer and to stop and raise his hands,” Hall said. “None of it made any impact on this guy at all, including the fact that Rudolf held a gun on him.”

Hall said the man charged Rudolf, who fended him off by kicking at him. The man then went back to the pickup truck and grabbed a screwdriver, Hall said.

“The suspect again quickly advanced on the officer, holding the screwdriver near his waist, and the officer, for the last time, gave him another front kick in an attempt to stop his assault,” Hall said. “The suspect again came at the officer, who now believed that the only way to stop the suspect was to use deadly force, and he fired.”

After the shooting, Torres, who was in the pickup truck, surrendered to Rudolf, Hall said.

The Tuesday morning shooting followed an unrelated police shooting Sunday morning in Canoga Park in which an off-duty officer killed a man after going to a house at 2 a.m. to quiet a boisterous party. Police said the officer fired after a party-goer threatened him with a shotgun and then grappled with him in a hand-to-hand struggle. Other people who were at the party have called the police version of the incident inaccurate.