A man who was standing in traffic swinging a machete in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday was eventually shot by police after he got into a car, led them on a short chase, then got out and approached officers with the weapon outside Crypto.com arena.
The man, who was not immediately identified, was expected to survive after getting medical care, according to social media posts from the Los Angeles Police Department.
The man was waving the machete in the middle of Figueroa Street near Olympic Boulevard on Sunday morning, at one point holding it in his mouth and later approaching vehicles with the machete raised in his hand, footage from KABC showed.
When police first arrived, the man advanced toward officers, before jumping into a black Dodge Challenger and leading them on a brief chase, according to LAPD.
The chase ended on Figueroa Street south of 12th Street, where the man got out of his vehicle, still wielding the machete, video showed. He was shot after moving toward an LAPD officer with the weapon still in his hand, according to the video.
“You can only give so many warnings,” Meghan Aguilar, a detective with LAPD, told KABC. The shooting remains under investigation.
The man was taken to a local hospital where he went into surgery, LAPD officials said Sunday afternoon. He was expected to recover, but it wasn’t immediately clear what criminal charges he could face.
