LA deputy shoots man armed with hatchet in Compton

COMPTON Calif. (AP) — A man armed with a hatchet was shot to death Thursday on a confrontation with a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in Compton, authorities said.

Deputies were called to a convenience store on South Santa Fe Avenue at around 12:15 p.m. by a report of a man with a knife, a Sheriff’s Department statement said.

Store surveillance video showed a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt swinging a hatchet and apparently threatening a clerk who had asked him to leave, KTLA-TV reported.

The man returned to the store a couple of times before leaving and deputies searching the area spotted him at a nearby shopping center, KTLA-TV reported.

The man was shot after he was seen approaching one of the stores with the hatchet in his hand, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The department didn’t immediately release other details of the confrontation.

The man was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Sheriff’s Department said he was believed to be 45 to 50 years old but his identity wasn’t immediately released.