PALO ALTO — Police shot and killed a man Christmas night who they say called 911 to report a “false emergency,” then charged them with a knife outside a residential treatment center for the mentally ill when they arrived.
The deadly confrontation outside the Momentum for Mental Health residential home in downtown Palo Alto rattled the neighborhood and left fellow residents at the treatment center shaken.
The 31-year-old man had checked into the home on Forest Avenue only three days earlier, a source familiar with the investigation said. The 15-bed center is one of five in the Bay Area run by the nonprofit organization Momentum.
Momentum staff declined to comment, and authorities had yet to identify the man on Saturday as they worked to notify his family.
The violent encounter was the second police-involved shooting on Christmas Day in the Bay Area, just hours after BART police shot and wounded a man who shot an officer in the arm near the Hayward station. Both the officer and suspect survived.
In Palo Alto, the confrontation between the man and the officers came after police received a 911 call at 9:16 p.m. Friday to report a person at the Tudor-style home was threatening to harm others with a knife, Palo Alto police Sgt. James Reifschneider told this news organization Friday. Palo Alto police said Saturday night they determined the man was the one who called authorities and was waiting for them outside with the knife when they arrived.
The shooting took place in the front yard of the neighborhood known as University South.
“It’s a tragic situation,” Palo Alto Police Chief Dennis Burns said.
The investigation is still continuing, but among other theories, the chief said, police are looking at whether the man was suicidal and may have purposely provoked the situation, a method known as “suicide by cop.”
Police would not say Saturday exactly what type of knife the man was carrying. But a source characterized it as a “butter knife” or table knife, not a butcher or steak knife.
Gunfire erupted around 9:23 p.m., moments after officers arrived at the home, according to Reifschneider.
“The preliminary investigation shows that almost immediately after our officers arrived on scene, a single suspect who was armed with a knife in his hand charged at our officers and shots were fired,” Reifschneider said.
It was unclear whether the officers had crisis intervention training.
Medics treated the man and then transported him to a hospital, where he died, according to Reifschneider.
The identities of the two officers involved in the shooting were not released. They were placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, which is routine after police shootings.
No officers were injured. “But, as you might imagine, because this is an infrequent occurrence and something that police officers seek to avoid, it is a stressful and traumatic thing for them as well,” Reifschneider said. “So, we’re making sure they’re OK.”
Meanwhile, investigators with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office are conducting an investigation, as is standard in any officer-involved shooting, according to Reifschneider.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the city’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413.
Contact Tracey Kaplan at 408-278-3482. Follow her at Twitter.com/tkaplanreport.
