A man armed with a gardening tool is fatally shot by police in Northern California, authorities say
Police in Northern California shot and killed a man armed with a gardening tool Monday night after he allegedly lunged at them.
The man, who has not been identified, was declared dead at the scene of the shooting in Union City, a San Francisco Bay Area city, said police Capt. Jared Rinetti.
Union City police responded at 10:20 p.m. to a home in the 3800 block of Amy Place, where a woman reported seeing a man in her backyard, he said. The man was pounding on her bedroom window and was holding a claw-style gardening tool, Rinetti said.
Two Union City officers asked the man to drop the weapon, but instead he charged at them, he said.
The officers feared for their lives and fired at him, Rinetti said.
“Everything happened very quickly,” he said.
Body cameras recorded the shooting and showed the man charging at officers with what appeared to be a weapon, said Rinetti, who said he had seen the video footage.
He said it’s not clear whether the officers knew the weapon was a gardening tool.
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The officers were placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine for police shootings.
The Union City Police Department and the Alameda County district attorney’s office will perform independent investigations of the shooting, Rinetti said.
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