Man With Knife Dies in Fight With 2 Deputies

A knife-wielding man who tried to commandeer a pickup truck in front of two uniformed sheriff’s deputies in South El Monte died early Monday morning after fighting with the officers, authorities said.

Under department policy, the deputies, Ty Labbe and Peivi Tauiliili, will be placed on administrative leave while homicide detectives investigate the death of the unidentified man, believed to be in his 20s.

The coroner has not determined the cause of death.

Deputies believe the man may have been in a nearby residential neighborhood shortly before he commandeered the truck.

The deputies saw the man at 2:30 a.m. when he ran across the street to a convenience store at 1533 Peck Road, where they were ticketing a motorist in the store parking lot, Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Christiansen said.

“The deputies initially thought he was perhaps a victim coming to seek aid, but he ran right by them . . . ,” Christiansen said.

The man grabbed a dust broom from the store entrance, then ran back to a 1979 Chevrolet truck parked next to the car the deputies were ticketing.

Dropping the broom, the man then brandished a knife with a 4-inch blade and commandeered the truck from two men inside it, Christiansen said. The man started the truck and drove it backward, hitting another car, before deputies intervened.

When the man fought back, deputies struck him with their fists and flashlights, wrestling him to the ground and handcuffing him, Christiansen said.

Minutes later, the man stopped breathing and the deputies gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until paramedics arrived.

He was pronounced dead at Greater El Monte Community Hospital.

Tauiliili strained his right knee and Labbe injured his hand in the fracas. Both deputies were treated at Arcadia Methodist Hospital and released, Christiansen said.