Man shot by Escondido police allegedly was carrying knife, wooden pole

An Escondido police officer shot and critically wounded a man allegedly armed with a knife and wooden pole early Tuesday after a confrontation in an alley — two hours after police initially had spoken with him, authorities said.

About 2:30 a.m., officers talked with the man after he had intentionally harmed himself with a knife while inside a group home on South Elm Street near East Grand Avenue, San Diego and Escondido police said.

During that call, Escondido police evacuated the facility and talked with the man for about an hour and tried to persuade him to surrender. Instead, he barricaded himself in a bathroom. Officers left because the man had not threatened to harm anyone other than himself and police were trying to de-escalate the situation, San Diego police Lt. Lou Maggi said in a news release.

But police were called back to the facility. They were told the man was no longer barricaded but was walking around the property with a knife and a 2-foot-long wooden pole, police officials said.

An Escondido K-9 officer who was on the earlier call initially armed himself with a gun that shoots 40 mm rubber projectiles and waited in the alley for other officers. But before they arrived, the man appeared in the alley about 4:20 a.m.

“The officer gave commands for the man to drop the stick. The man refused to drop the stick and charged at the officer,” Maggi wrote. “The officer transitioned to his handgun, yelled for the man to stop and then ...