An Escondido police officer shot and killed a man accused of hitting cars with a metal pole Wednesday morning, the department said.
The officer shot the man near the intersection of Broadway and Second Avenue just after 7 a.m., KTLA sister station KSWB in San Diego reported.
In a statement, police said someone called to report a man “hitting cars with a ‘metal pole’ in the area.” The man “was armed with a large metal object” when officers arrived, police said, but they provided no further details on the chain of events ending with the officer opening fire.
“During the contact, one officer shot at the man striking him,” the statement reads.
Police say officers gave the man first aid until paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital, where he later died. His identity was not immediately released.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office will officially determine his cause of death, police said.
A lieutenant at the scene later told KSWB that the officer had fired multiple times, and that the man who was killed was believed to be homeless and had been living the area.
Further details had not been released as of noon Wednesday.