Authorities on Thursday publicly identified two San Diego police patrolmen and the apparently suicidal man they shot dead when he allegedly advanced on them with a knife.
Officers Gavin Isa and Eric Moreno shot and killed Andrew Christian Engel, 26, at an East Village apartment earlier this week.
Isa and Moreno have both been with the San Diego Police Department for 4 1/2 years. They are assigned to Central Division patrol.
Shortly before 7 p.m. Monday, a resident of an apartment complex in the 1100 block of E Street reported that his roommate was suicidal, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, which investigates shootings carried out by San Diego police personnel under the terms of a countywide agreement.
When officers arrived, the caller told them his roommate, Engel, had tried to kill himself with a knife.
Isa and Moreno entered the residence and Engel allegedly approached the patrolmen with a knife in his hand. Sheriff’s officials, in a news release, said the officers ordered the man to drop the knife, but he didn’t and continued moving towards them. That’s when Isa and Moreno opened fire.
Paramedics took Engel to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
