Authorities released a video Monday of a police shooting that killed an apparently suicidal knife-wielding man who charged officers in his high-rise East Village residence.
The incident occurred shortly before 7 p.m. Jan. 13, when a resident of an apartment complex in the 1100 block of E Street made an emergency call to report that his roommate was suicidal, according to the San Diego Police Department.
When officers arrived, the caller told them his roommate, 26-year-old Andrew Christian Engel, had tried to kill himself with a knife and was inside a bathroom, police said.
With their uniform-worn cameras activated, SDPD Officers Gavin Isa and Eric Moreno entered the 16th-floor residence, contacted six acquaintances of Engel’s and directed them to leave the apartment, according to police.
Moments later, as officers questioned the group waiting in the adjacent hallway about Engel’s location, Engel suddenly charged at them wearing only shorts and holding a kitchen knife raised in his right hand, according to the video.
Isa and Moreno then opened fire, discharging a total of about a dozen shots, police said. Engel collapsed to the floor, still holding the knife above his body.
After police disarmed Engel, paramedics took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the department.
