CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) - A Culver City police officer was shot in the leg by friendly fire and an apparently homeless man with a knife was killed Monday during a chase, authorities said.
The man was shot after charging at Culver City police in the stairwell of a parking garage on Washington Boulevard at around 2:30 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Police were called after the man pulled a knife on a maintenance worker and officers found the man - with a knife in his hand - in the stairwell between the fifth and sixth floors and tried to get him to drop the knife and surrender, sheriff’s Lt. Derrick Alfred told KNX-AM.
The officers used non-lethal weapons on the man but he refused to surrender, he said.
“He tried to run toward the officers,” Alfred said. “It seems like he may have run between two officers, which caused the friendly fire which resulted in one of the officers being struck by gunfire from another officer.”
The man died at a hospital. His name wasn’t immediately released.
The wounded officer was shot in the leg and was taken to a hospital in fair condition, KCBS-TV reported.
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