Jan. 05--A pair of odd encounters between San Francisco police and a man hanging out in a police parking lot ended violently Sunday night when the man was shot and killed after brandishing a pellet gun.
The episode began hours earlier about a block away at 16th and Mission streets, when the man allegedly approached two officers working another incident and asked them about their guns and ammo.
The man asked "what kind of guns SFPD carry, what kind of ammunition and if they had been involved in any officer-involved shootings," the department said in a statement.
The officers ignored the man and moved on, police said.
Just before 8 p.m., three sergeants saw the man in a restricted area of the Mission station parking lot and told him to leave, Chief Greg Suhr told media Sunday night.
The man began to walk away but then turned and faced the officers, Suhr said.
He began to back away from officers but kept his hands in his sweater pockets before reaching down and pulling up his sweater to show the butt of a gun tucked into his waistband, police said.
"Fearing for their safety, and in defense of their lives, the sergeants drew their service weapons as the suspect pulled his weapon from his waistband," police said in a statement.
The man was shot three times and killed. Police then checked the weapon and realized it was a pellet gun. The officers involved in the shooting have been put on paid administrative leave, which is routine after such incidents.
The identity of the man who was shot has not been released. The investigation into the incident is being conducted by the San Francisco police's internal affairs division, along with county prosecutors, which is standard procedure.
Department officials said they will schedule a town hall meeting to discuss the incident next week.
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