A knife-wielding male making suicidal statements died Sunday night after he confronted Santa Maria police officers who used less-lethal weapons before deploying their firearms.
The shooting occurred just before 7 p.m. on the 400 block of East Mill Street, according to Sgt. Woody Vega of the Santa Maria Police Department.
Officers respondied at approximately 6:15 p.m. to a domestic disturbance at an apartment building in the area when the shooting occurred.
“It was learned an armed suicidal male had been threatening other family members inside the home,” police said in a written statement.
Officers set up exterior containment of the home and attempted to calm the situation by communicating with the agitated male, police said.
“The male came out of the home armed with two knives and confronted officers after making suicidal statements,” police said late Sunday night in a written statement. “The officers attempted to stop his aggressive actions by deploying a less-lethal projectile which was unsuccessful. The officers were forced to deploy their firearms, which ended the threat.”
The male, whose name and age were not released, died due to his injuries, police said.
At least one neighbor reportedly heard multiple gunshots at approximately 6:50 p.m.
Officers involved in the incident were not injured.
Police blocked off East Mill Street between North Miller and North School streets for several hours after the shooting. An alleyway between Miller and School streets also was blocked by officers..
At approximately 10 p.m., several Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene to investigate the shooting, which is standard procedure following an officer-involved shooting involving Santa Maria police.
Check back with Noozhawk for updates to this story.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.