A possibly mentally disturbed man who was shot by Los Angeles Police after slashing a SWAT officer with a knife following a standoff Wednesday morning in Sylmar died at a hospital, authorities said.
The officer-involved shooting took place about 2:40 a.m. after a standoff that began about 7:10 p.m. Tuesday when police went o a residence in the 14700 block of Lakeside Street on a call about a mentally ill man, said LAPD Officer Ricardo Hernandez.
When officers first went to the residence, they “encountered the man outside the location armed with a knife,” Hernandez said. “At that point, officers used a Taser to try and subdue the suspect, but it did not stop him and the man ran back inside his residence and refused to come out.”
It then devolved into a barricade situation, Hernandez said. A SWAT team was called to the scene, along with negotiators, to try and end the standoff. But the man refused to come out.
About 1:30 a.m., SWAT officers used gas to try and flush the man outside.
“He eventually came out and tried to sneak around the corner of his building,” Hernandez said. “But he encountered some SWAT officers who used a Taser and bean bags to try and subdue him, but the suspect remained unaffected. The man then used his knife to cut one of the officers on the arm.”
At that point, officers opened fire on the suspect, whose name was withheld pending notification of his family.
The officer was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The shooting was being investigated by the LAPD’s Force Investigation Division, the Office of the Inspector General and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Justice System Integrity Division shooting team.
—Staff and wire reports