A 25-year-old man shot and killed by an Escondido police officer has been identified.
Investigators said Randy Wayne Mullins, 25 was holding a weapon when he was shot to death shortly after 3 a.m. Tuesday.
The man answered the door armed with a shotgun, according to authorities, who said they were alerted to the situation by a neighbor who reported hearing fighting and property being damaged.
Escondido Police Lt. Bob Benton told the North County Times that afterward, detectives interviewed the man's wife and other witnesses at the scene of the shooting in the 300 block of West 10th Avenue, as well as the officer and his partner.
Benton told the paper that the officer fired multiple times "in defense of his life."
"At this point, we still don't know what transpired," Benton told NBCSanDiego. "We're still interviewing those officers now. We're still in the preliminary stages of the investigation. We've had to get a search warrant for the residence which we're obtaining as we speak."
A weeping neighbor, however, told NBCSanDiego that she believes the shooting was unjustified.
"The cop opened fire just like that," said neighbor Linda Richuisa.
Richuisa knew the victim all his life.
"Randy will be missed," Richulsa said. "I've known him since he was in diapers; he grew up with our daughter.... He had a knack of making wrong decisions, but he was a good man."
