A man clutching scissors who was shot and killed by police in an upscale Escondido home on Thursday has been identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Van Dinh Le, 51, died Thursday in his home in the 2500 block of Hamlin Court.
Officers received reports of a man trying to cut his throat at 8:35 a.m., Lt. Craig Carter said.
Residents say Le’s wife went to her neighbor’s house and was frantic.
“She was hysterical and she was crying,” said neighbor Greg Hawksworth. “She was saying how great of a husband he was, and just could not believe what was happening... She fell to the ground screaming, ‘Oh my god!’ And it was pretty bad, pretty devastating.”
Several officers were inside the home when they confronted Le, who had a pair of scissors, police said. At least one officer fired shots from a service handgun.
Le was pronounced dead at the scene.
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The officers had non lethal weapons, but did not use them, Carter said.
”Certainly we never intend to go to the lethal force. That sometimes happens like it did today, but we always look at different options including, taser, baton, pepper spray, anything we have on our person as we go in,” said Carter.
Officials are investigating why at least one officer used deadly force.
“Whatever the reason was today, that was not one of the options the officers chose, and again, until we do the full investigation, we won't know exactly what pushed that,” said Carter.
Carter would not confirm how many shots were fired.
No one else was hurt.
The shooting happened in a relatively new and upscale housing development called Chapparal Ridge. One resident says homes cost up to $700,000 and have only been available for sale for the past six months.
