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Armed Suspect Killed in Sunset Cliffs Officer-Involved Shooting: SDPD

The suspect has been identified as a Connecticut man who traveled to San Diego by bus the day before the confrontation

Officers shot and killed a 24-year-old Connecticut man Sunday after the man broke into a Sunset Cliffs home and armed himself with a knife. 

Residents on Trieste Drive called San Diego Police Department officers at about 6:07 a.m. to report a man banging on their doors and windows in the Point Loma neighborhood, "demanding a knife so he could kill himself," said Lt. Mike Holden, of the San Diego Police Department. 

When SDPD officers arrived they found the suspect, Kyle Zahacefski of Colchester, Connecticut, in the front yard of an elevated home in the 1200 block of the street. POlice said Zahacefski picked up bricks and threw them towards officers from above.

Zahacefski then ran towards the home. Police officers heard the sound of glass breaking and discovered that Zahacefski had broken a door to the house.

There were two residents who were upstairs sleeping at the time. Officers followed the Zahacefski, who did not live there, into the home. 

That is when they saw the suspect in the kitchen with a fixed-blade knife pointed at his throat, Holden said. Zahacefski refused several orders to drop the knife and instead, turned it towards officers. 

"The suspect pointed the knife at officers and quickly walked toward them," Holden said. 

At that moment, two officers — one armed with a less-lethal bean bag shotgun and the other armed with an AR-15 rifle — fired their weapons at Zahacefski, SDPD said. 

Zahacefski was struck by at least one bullet. Despite efforts to resuscitate him, he died at the scene, police said.

Police said Zahacefski arrived in San Diego by bus on December 9, but  investigators have not determined why he traveled to California.

The two residents and the two officers were not injured. 

The officer who fired his weapon is a 15-year-veteran of the San Diego Police Department, Holden said. 

The investigation into the incident is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

A previous version of this story erroneously reported the incident occurred in the 1600 block of Trieste Drive. 

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