Police in California said a woman protecting herself against a knife-wielding attacker fatally shot him outside her home Friday evening, FOX11 reported.
Authorities said that the woman made a 911 call at 9:20 pm to report that there was a man armed with a knife outside her house, according to FOX11. The suspect, who had a restraining order against him filed by the woman, allegedly tried to stab the woman and another man at the home before the woman fatally shot the suspect, FOX11 reported. (RELATED: Police Release Bodycam Footage Of Fatal Shooting Of Naked 19-Year-Old Wielding Knife)
Police, who arrived and found the suspect dead, held the woman and man for questioning but did not arrest them, according to the outlet.
“It’s a little traumatizing, I’m not gonna lie,” neighbor Paulette Polk told FOX11. “I went outside, and I saw him in the driveway, and the police escorted me into the house to ask me questions about what was going on.”
Polk told FOX11 that the woman rented the place six months ago and lived there with her teenage daughter, adding that the man who was with her that night often visited, and that all three kept to themselves.
“We heard just the one ‘pop’ and my wife was getting ready for bed, and she goes, ‘was that a gunshot?’ And I was like,’I think that was,’” neighbor Paul Lazaer said. “Then we saw the police cars kind of speeding past. There are nine of them, and we’re like, that’s not, you know, this is Monrovia and nothing happens.”
Neighbors who gathered outside the home Friday night appeared to be trying to comprehend the incident, FOX11 reported.
“I found the knife. We were walking around and it was right over there,” a neighbor said. “I just saw something lying on the ground. I thought maybe it was like a leaf or something. You know, normal things that you’d see on the street. And then I looked closer and I was like, ‘whoa, that’s a knife.'”
Investigators, who found several knives and a firearm at the scene, said it’s still unknown what led up to the incident but that the LA County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau is investigating, according to FOX11.