Police in San Diego responding to an emergency call about someone in distress shot and killed a 15-year-old boy on Saturday, after he pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them.

The boy had made the original call, police said in a statement.

According to the statement, two officers responded to a 911 call requesting a welfare check on a 15-year-old standing in front of a school. The caller said the boy was not armed.

A boy at the school pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at one of the responding officers as they exited their patrol cars, the statement said.

The officers drew weapons and instructed the boy to drop the gun, the statement said, but he refused and walked toward an officer, ignoring a second command to drop the gun and continuing to walk toward one of them.

Both officers fired, striking the boy several times. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The gun held by the teen turned out to be a semi-automatic BB air pistol, police said.

The boy, who was not identified because of his age, was a local resident who was a student at the school where he was shot, police said.

A number of high-profile shootings of young African American men by police officers have involved the alleged misidentification of BB or pellet guns. Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was shot dead in a Cleveland park in November 2014, was holding a BB gun.