Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a man Saturday after he confronted them with a rifle that was later determined to be an airsoft gun, authorities said.
The shooting occurred around 1:20 p.m. on the 400 block of West 102nd Street, in the Vermont Vista neighborhood, according to Detective Meghan Aguilar.
Police were originally responding to the area for a report of a domestic disturbance. When two officers arrived, a man believed to be about 19 years old emerged from a home holding a black rifle, Aguilar said.
The man was shot in the chest by police and pronounced dead at the scene.
“We’re not sure that that rifle was an actual working rifle or if it was an airsoft rifle,” Aguilar said immediately after the shooting.
By Saturday night, police had determined it was an airsoft weapon designed to shoot plastic projectiles.
Police are unsure if one or both officers fired their weapons, and along with an investigation of the weapons themselves, body-cam footage and surveillance footage will be collected and reviewed by investigators.
No one else was injured, and no one else was arrested or detained.
