Officer shoots and kills knife-wielding suspect

FRESNO – A man threatening police with a knife is dead after an officer opened fire on him early Wednesday morning in central Fresno.

The Fresno Police Department received a call around 3:40 a.m. on Wednesday about a suspicious individual that was running in the street on Abby Street near Belmont Avenue. When officers arrived on the scene, they saw the individual standing just north of Belmont, on Abby, with a 10 or 12 inch steak knife in his hand.

The intersection of Abby and Belmont, near where the shooting occured

“A citizen pulled up in his vehicle about that same time, and the suspect went over to that vehicle armed with the knife and started pounding the car,” Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.

At that point, another officer arrived at the scene and got out of his vehicle. He began to walk toward the individual with the knife to try to distract him away from the citizen vehicle, Dyer said.

“It was at that time that the suspect with the knife started advancing toward the officer,” Dyer said.

The officer retreated behind his patrol car, at which point the suspect started running toward the officer while armed with the knife, Dyer said. The officer fired at the suspect multiple times. The suspect died at the scene.

“It’s probably too early to tell how many times the individual was hit as well as where he was hit,” Dyer said.

Police have not yet identified the deceased suspect, who Dyer said appeared to be around 30 years old, or why he was running around with a knife.

“We’re not certain about what transpired prior to the individual being out there running in the street,” Dyer said. “We do know that there was one witness who said that this suspect had some type of object in his hand and earlier in the evening had run at another car.”

The on and off ramps at Hwy 180 as well as the intersection of Belmont and Abby were closed for several hours on Wednesday morning as police investigated the scene.

The name of the officer involved in the shooting has not been disclosed.

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