A black man has been shot dead by police in New York after he pointed a metal pipe at them.

Police had responded to emergency callers who said the man was aiming a firearm at pedestrians in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, an official said.

He was named as Saheed Vassell, 34.

Vassell took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at police and three plainclothes officers and one uniformed officer shot 10 times, the chief of department, Terence Monahan, told a news conference.

“This was a call of a man pointing what 911 callers and people felt was a gun at people on the street,” Monahan said. “When we encounter him, he turns with what appears to be a gun at officers.”

#Breaking: NYPD officials give update on Police involved shooting in Crown Heights Brooklyn https://t.co/5Bimp0UXXA — NYPDBrooklynNorth (@NYPDBklynNorth) April 4, 2018

Crowds gathered on the street to protest about the shooting. Some shouted “oppressors” as they faced off against police officers who had cordoned off the scene of the shooting with police tape.

Andre Wilson, 38, told the Daily News that he had known the victim for 20 years, describing him as a quirky neighborhood character.

“All he did was just walk around the neighborhood,” he said. “He speaks to himself, usually he has an orange Bible or a rosary in his hand. He never had a problem with anyone.”

The shooting follows a number of killings of unarmed black men by police that triggered street protests and led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Police were investigating, Monahan said, adding that surveillance video obtained from stores nearby showed Vassell brandishing an object that looked like a firearm.

He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

A police shooting of an unarmed black man in Sacramento, California, has sparked several days of protests.

In that incident, officers responding to a report of someone breaking windows shot to death 22-year-old Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s backyard on 18 March. The officers feared he had a gun, but he was found to have been holding a cellphone, Sacramento police have said.