Chico >> Two Chico police officers fatally shot a 25-year-old man Friday evening after police said the man was acting “erratically” and began slashing at the officers with a knife.

The man, whose name was not released, died after being shot multiple times by the officers at an apartment in the 700 block of West Fourth Avenue in Chico, Police Chief Mike O’Brien said at a press conference early Saturday morning.

O’Brien said the father of the man had called 9-1-1 about 7:30 p.m. Friday. The police chief said the man was acting “erratically,” and his father initially requested that firefighters and medics respond.

O’Brien said the police had “some history” with the man. And investigators were looking into the possibility that he may have been suffering from a mental illness.

Upon arrival, firefighters contacted the man verbally, but he became “hostile” toward responding personnel, O’Brien said. The firefighters then removed themselves from the scene and contacted dispatchers.

Officers subsequently responded to the apartment, O’Brien said. Inside the apartment were the man, his father, and two children.

Upon arrival, officers could see the man pacing in a small living room and was said to be holding two knives, the police chief said. The officers tried to talk to the man in an effort to “calm him down,” but were not successful.

As the encounter unfolded, the officers moved away from the man in an effort to “defuse” the situation but remained in the general area “due to an overall concern to the children and father still trapped inside the apartment,” O’Brien said. While that was happening, the man shut the apartment’s front door, obstructing the officers’ view of what was going on inside the home.

At some point, officers “received information” that the man was attempting to stab his father and break down a locked bedroom where the father was hiding, O’Brien said.

“Due to the now imminent threat to the father, and to the children — the two children inside the apartment — that was posed by the armed subject, officers gained entry to the front door apartment in order to protect them,” the police chief said.

At that point, the officers and the man were near one another, and one of the officers used a stun gun on the man to “minimal effect,” O’Brien said. Before a second Taser deployment could occur, he said, the man got on his feet and “started to slash at the officers who, again, were in very close proximity to the subject.”

Two officers then opened fire, striking the man, O’Brien said. The man fell to the ground.

Firefighters and medical personnel were called in and performed “life-saving efforts” on scene before the man was taken to Enloe Medical Center, where he died, the police chief said.

The Chico Police Department has not yet deployed its body cameras, and no video evidence of the events exist “at this time,” he said.

The names of the officers were not released. They were placed on paid administrative leave, which O’Brien said was standard for such an incident.

The officers, the father and the children inside the home were not hurt, he said.

“This is a tragic event,” O’Brien said. “It’s tragic for the family, the officers that were involved, for everyone. And that is regardless of the outcome of this investigation.”

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said an investigation was underway by the Butte County Officer Involved Shooting/Critical Incident Protocol Team. The state Department of Justice also was assisting.

Ramsey said the man’s father made “several” 9-1-1 calls during the incident. He added that the officers learned of the man’s alleged threat to stab his father from a 9-1-1 call the father made.

The officers entered the apartment by breaking the door down “because the father was calling from inside basically asking for help that he was going to be stabbed by his son,” Ramsey said.

It was unclear how many times the man was shot. The district attorney said an autopsy will be performed.

“This is the very beginning of this investigation,” Ramsey said.

Contact reporter Andre Byik at 896-7760.