Homeless Man Shot to Death by Deputies

A disheveled man who walked into a Sunset Strip coffee shop wielding a hatchet and yelling obscenities was shot and killed Tuesday by sheriff’s deputies.

The apparently homeless, 37-year-old man entered the Coffee Bean in the 8500 block of Sunset Boulevard shortly before 8 a.m., carrying a duffel bag and yelling as he walked through the busy shop, Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Sciacca said.

Customers fled as he took a seat and mumbled incoherently, Sciacca said.

Moses Merino, who manages the diner next door, said he “saw some people running by . . . we thought it was a robbery or something.”

Minutes later, four deputies arrived.

“When they got inside . . . they saw a man with a rather large butcher knife in his hand,” Sciacca said.

Deputies led the four remaining customers and workers from the shop and ordered the man to put down the weapons, Sciacca said. When he refused, deputies tried to subdue him with pepper spray.

The spray caused him to bend over for a few seconds, but he then raised an arm as if to throw a knife, Sciacca said. Three deputies fired several rounds, striking the man in the upper torso.

The butcher knife and the hatchet were recovered from the scene, as well as a third 10-inch knife, Sciacca said.

The man’s name had not been released pending notification of relatives.