Police Shoot, Kill Knife-Wielding Man

A police officer shot and killed a man who lunged at him with a knife after a foot chase Thursday, witnesses and police said.

Officers had responded to a call at 12:15 p.m. about a man with a knife near an apartment in the 9800 block of Central Avenue, Lt. John Woods said.

In the next block, the officers saw a man, later identified as Hao Dinh Vu, 34, of Garden Grove, waving the weapon, but as they approached, he scaled a fence, Woods said.

A resident said she opened her screen door and saw a man holding a knife at his waist. He ran through her yard and onto Russell Avenue, near Sunnyside Elementary School, where police again yelled at him to stop and throw down the knife, the resident said.

Woods said Vu “refused to drop the knife, then lunged toward the officer. The officer fired several rounds.”

Stacey Conway said she also had seen the chase from her living room down the street. The fleeing man, she said, seemed to run “in slow motion” as the officer ordered him to stop.

The man fell on the grass in front of the Sunnyside school office. Police officers converging on the area performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Vu died at the scene.

“All the cops and everyone around him were trying to save his life,” said Angel Murga, 25, who lives across the street from the school.

The school had closed for the summer, and no one was on campus, said Alan Trudell, spokesman for the Garden Grove Unified School District.

Even so, Murga’s grandmother, Frances Ramos, said, “It’s scary because there are a lot of kids running around here.”

The district attorney’s office will investigate the shooting, a standard procedure. The unnamed officer, who has been with the department for 4 1/2 years, was placed on temporary administrative leave.