Santa Clara Police Kill Woman Waving Aluminum Baseball Bat

Santa Clara police fatally shot a woman who they say started attacking them with a baseball bat.

She was the fourth person since 2012 to be killed in a Santa Clara police officer-involved shooting.

Lt. Kurt Clarke said in a statement the officers feared "for their safety," and fired at her about 4:50 p.m. Sunday in the 5000 block of Lick Mill Boulevard after they were called there because she called 911 "making threats to harm herself and others."

Sgt. Alan Wolf, a 25-year veteran with the Santa Clara Police Department, and Officer Andrew McGuire, who has served the past 22 months, fatally shot the suspect, according to Clarke.

When they arrived, police said the woman came out of the front door and attacked the officers with the bat.

She was treated at the scene but died later at a hospital.

Fatal officer-involved shootings are unusual in Santa Clara.  But not unheard of.

Clarke told NBC Bay Area the department's last fatal officer-involved shooting was in September 2013, when they assisted with an undercover drug case in Sunnyvale.

There were two officer-involved shootings in 2012.

In October of that year, Santa Clara police fatally shot a 41-year-old man, armed with a knife, who was fighting with his father and reportedly didn't obey orders to drop his weapon. In January of that  year, Santa Clara police also fatally shot a 42-year-old man who was suspected of DUI, "became uncooperative," and appeared to reach for a gun.

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