A man armed with a knife was shot dead by an officer at the 7th St/Metro Center transit station in downtown Los Angeles Thursday morning, police said.
Officers responded to the upper platform at the underground Metro station near 7th and Flower streets at about 6:55 a.m. after transit security staff advised them of a man with a knife there, L.A. police officials said in a tweet.
LAPD said it attempted to de-escalate the situation and tried using a non-lethal means of taking the man into custody, though it did not specify what kind of attempts were used.
The non-lethal force was ineffective and police opened fire on the suspect, who was fatally struck. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials tweeted that no officers were injured in the incident shortly after 7:30 a.m.
Video showed crime scene tape at the top of an escalator that leads down to the subway platform.
The identity of the person fatally shot in the incident has not been released. Officials have only described the man as being Latino.
The 7th St/Metro Center station serves the Metro’s Purple and Red line subways, as well as the Blue and Expo line light rail trains.
Though one entrance to the station was closed due to the ensuing investigation, the shooting did not disrupt service. However, buses had replaced Blue and Expo line service between the 7th St/Metro Center and Pico stations due to an ongoing power issue amid a powerful winter storm, officials said.
One officer deployed a less-lethal option which was ineffective and an Officer-Involved Shooting occurred. The suspect was struck by gunfire and was pronounced deceased at scene. The knife was recovered at scene.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) February 14, 2019
7th/Metro Ctr: 7th/Figueroa portal closed due to police activity, use Flower and Hope St entrances to access station. pic.twitter.com/4RuqJNiIHs
— LA Metro Rider Alerts (@metrolaalerts) February 14, 2019
BLUE/EXPO: Buses replace service between 7th/Metro and Pico due to ongoing power issue. pic.twitter.com/9LCAZjE9Er
— LA Metro Rider Alerts (@metrolaalerts) February 14, 2019