Los Angeles police shot and killed a man who reportedly threatened bystanders with a knife in a bustling Westlake shopping district on Sunday, authorities said.
Officers with the bicycle unit of LAPD's Rampart Division were responding to an unrelated call about 1 p.m. when a pedestrian flagged them down and alerted them to a man with a knife near 6th Street and Union Avenue, according to Cmdr. Blake Chou. The officers confronted the man and ordered him to drop the knife several times. When he failed to drop the weapon, officers began firing, police said.
Some residents of the neighborhood said officers routinely harassed them there and took the opportunity Sunday to voice their opinions about the police.
"Killers go to hell," one person said.
"You guys don't have the right to come to our neighborhood and assassinate people," another yelled.
A resident living less than a block from the scene said the dead man was middle-aged, well-known in the area and frequently appeared to be drunk. She often saw him passed out not far from where he was shot.
"The police told him, 'Put the knife down, put the knife down'" Woods said. She said the man responded by becoming agitated and rambling loudly. "You could see him wobbling from side to side," she said.
Meleika Williams, another resident, said the man may have stabbed people on the streets before he was shot by police. Authorities said they could not confirm whether anyone had been stabbed but said no one was taken to the hospital.
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Wikipedia: Skid Row is said to be America's only third world city.
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