By Tony Barboza
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — The man shot and killed by police Friday night at a crowded intersection in Hollywood was carrying a 3- to 4-inch folding knife, authorities said.
Officers opened fire at the man at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue about 7 p.m. while responding to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Michael Ling.
When officers arrived, they were approached by the suspect armed with the knife, Ling said. The LAPD posted a picture of the knife on Twitter.
The shooting occurred just a few hundred feet from the Dolby Theater, where the Academy Awards are held, and one of the most popular tourist spots in Hollywood.
Two officers fired shots, wounding the suspect multiple times in the upper torso, Ling said.
The man was taken by ambulance in critical condition to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The man’s confrontation with police took place in front of crowds of pedestrians and motorists, forcing the busy intersection to be shut down for hours.
“It was very surreal,” Henry Hodge, a guest at a nearby youth hostel, told KNBC-TV Channel 4. “The cars stopped, the people stopped, and immediately people started panicking.”
Bystanders took photos and video at the scene of the shooting and posted them to social media. They show officers standing near a man with guns drawn as he lay in a crosswalk at the intersection’s northwest corner.
#LAPD Ofcrs respond to ADW in progress, Susp armed w/ knife, #OIS occurred, knife recovered. @LAPDHollywood pic.twitter.com/63eWDpYBZj
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) December 6, 2014
No officers or bystanders were injured, authorities said.
Police did not release the slain man’s identity, describing him only as a white male. They did not identify the officers involved in the shooting or provide further details.
Copyright 2014 the Los Angeles Times