Man Dies in Clash With LAPD

In the second fatal shooting in a week, Los Angeles Police Department officers shot and killed a man Friday after he charged them with a butcher knife, officials said.

Officers responded to a report of an armed man causing a disturbance in the 600 block of 62nd Street just west of Figueroa Street about 10:15 a.m., said LAPD spokesman Officer Don Cox.

Police arrived to find the man running with a knife, LAPD officials said. Officers fired an unspecified number of rounds from a nonlethal beanbag weapon after he refused to comply with orders to drop his weapon.

When he continued to come at them with a 12-inch butcher knife, police shot him multiple times, said South Bureau Cmdr. Jim Tatreau.

The LAPD had responded in the past to disturbance calls involving the man, who police said appeared to be mentally ill.

“Officers tried to use less lethal force to restrain the man, but he charged at them,” Tatreau said. “The officers then fired in self-defense.”

The man, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was described as an African American in his late 30s or early 40s with “apparent mental health issues,” Tatreau said. He was not immediately identified. Tatreau would not specify how many rounds officers fired, how many times the man was shot, who the officers were, or their proximity to the man when shots were fired, citing pending department inquiries.

Cocoa Hard, 46, who lives in the neighborhood and saw the incident, said seven to nine LAPD officers at the scene could have used other means to subdue the man without killing him.

“When he got on 62nd Street, I saw him running and four officers were chasing him with their shotguns raised in the air,” she said. “When he got further down the street, he went behind a car and came out. Officers were telling him to kneel down.

“He ran in the middle of the street and he lay down with his arms on both sides of his waist. He still had the knife in his hand,” Hard said. “He got up off the ground [after about a minute] and was facing officers. That’s when he got up and started moving toward the officers and they opened fire.”

Another LAPD official familiar with the investigation said that after police fired beanbags at the man, he lay on the ground and seemed to be complying with officers’ orders. Then, suddenly, he jumped up and came at them, prompting the shooting, the official said.

The shooting came after a suspect was shot to death Monday by LAPD officers who pursued a suspect in Santa Monica.

Nicholas Hans Killinger, 23, of Malibu was killed after a dangerous high-speed car chase involving three officers.