Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies fatally shot a man Tuesday morning who had allegedly attacked a gas station store clerk with a machete before threatening customers at a supermarket.
The man reportedly attacked a Chevron employee in Lancaster around 3 am, a co-worker told ABC7. The victim’s hand was cut and bleeding as she ran out of the store before a customer drove her to the hospital where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to ABC7. (RELATED: Police Bodycam Captures Deadly Shootout At Grocery Store)
After the alleged attack at Chevron, the suspect reportedly walked one block and entered an Albertsons supermarket and began arguing with customers.
“When I walked in there was a guy arguing with the customers, and then I knew he had like a machete on the side,” an Albertsons’ employee told ABC7.
Upon arrival at Albertsons, deputies found the suspect standing outside holding a backpack containing two machetes, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said in a news release, according to ABC7.
Deputies tried calming the suspect down but he “became agitated and grabbed both machetes in his hands,” ABC7 reported.
Despite deputies’ orders to drop his weapons, the suspect refused, and the tense situation moved inside the store where deputies tased him twice before he charged at them and was fatally shot, according to ABC7.
“I heard shots and then everybody started running to the back and we exited through the back,” the Albertsons employee said. “That’s the worst experience I’ve ever had,” the employee added.
Authorities said that three deputies were involved in the shooting that took place near 9:30 a.m. and that no civilians or deputies were injured, ABC7 reported.
The suspect’s name will be released after his next of kin are notified, the outlet reported.