Officers Kill Alleged Assailant Outside Azusa Police Station

Azusa police Wednesday fatally shot a 28-year-old knife-wielding man who charged officers who were standing in front of the police station, authorities said.

Three officers killed the man, identified by relatives as Fernando Hernandez of Duarte, when he allegedly rushed them. Witnesses said that minutes after the shooting they counted 17 markers that were placed to note spent shell casings.

In a terse statement, police said that about 8 a.m. they received a call that a man armed with a knife was involved in a disturbance with a woman in front of the police station. When the three officers emerged from the station they saw Hernandez standing in the middle of Alameda Avenue.

Azusa Police Capt. Bob Garcia said the officers told Hernandez to drop the knife, but he instead charged. All three officers fired.

Hernandez died at the scene.

Relatives said Hernandez had been on disability since 1993 and had been taking medication “to calm him down,” but had recently stopped taking the pills. They said he had in fact been fighting in the civic center Wednesday morning with the mother of his three children, whom they would not identify.

But they questioned whether Hernandez would have charged the officers and decried the shooting.

“Either way, they could have backed off and brought in the Taser gun,” said the victim’s brother, Danny. “They were in front of the Police Department.”

Azusa police refused to answer questions about why the officers did not use other means to subdue Hernandez. The three officers were placed on paid leave, in accordance with department policy, and as usual in these cases, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will investigate the shooting.

Danny Hernandez said his brother was a gentle man who enjoyed playing with his three young children. He was on probation for a crime that Danny Hernandez would not identify.

“He never hurt anybody,” Danny said of his brother.

As the media milled around the blood-soaked scene of the shooting and relatives huddled in the shadow of the police station, a street sweeper drove by and hosed down the street in front of the police station.