SANTA CLARA — A desperate 911 call from a couple worried about their son ended in tragedy Thursday when a police officer shot and killed the 24-year-old man and left a tight-knit community wading through shock and confusion over his death.

Neighbors of the man have “zero” memory of him ever being trouble, and police asserted their reluctance to use deadly force after failing to calm him down at a busy city intersection.

“The situation had a tragic ending,” Santa Clara police Capt. Wahid Kazem said.

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Officers were dispatched to a two-story fourplex on Deborah Drive around 5 p.m. Thursday after police received an emergency call from a couple who said their son — whose identity has not been publicly released — had cut himself in the chest with a knife, was armed with a handgun and had barricaded himself in his bedroom.

Upstairs neighbor Gurpreet Singh said he saw police swarming the courtyard and heard the man’s mother pleading, “Please save my son.”

Singh and other neighbors said at some point during the interaction between the man and police that he took off toward the back of the complex and jumped a fence, then made his way about a quarter-mile toward Monroe Street and Scott Boulevard, where police encountered him again.

Police said the man threatened to shoot officers and himself, and officers trained in crisis communication immediately began talking to him and offered medical aid, which he refused. Officers eventually shot the man with a Taser, but it had no effect, and he refused to show his hands, according to police.

Fearing for his safety, Officer Colin Stewart opened fire with his service weapon when the man advanced toward him, according to police.

“We made a sincere effort to de-escalate the situation,” Kazem said. “We attempted to use a nonlethal device, a Taser. Unfortunately, the device was not successful in accomplishing the goal, and the officer had to use deadly force.”

Police said no weapon was found in the immediate vicinity of the body, but a bloody knife was located along the path the man ran down.

Stewart has been a police officer for 13 years, including the past eight with Santa Clara, Kazem said. He was placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine after officer-involved shootings in the county.

Kazem said police were called to the residence once before on Thursday prior to the fateful 911 call, but police declined to release details on that contact. Officers also visited the home at least once before Thursday.

Singh, who has lived in the complex for 10 years, said he and his neighbors are reeling.

“Everyone knows each other,” Singh said. “We’re like family members here.”

Singh stressed that the man who was killed was well-liked and often went out of his way to help others, whether it was helping jump-start a car or fixing up a dilapidated balcony railing. Singh said he man attended a local community college and worked at a nearby drugstore.

“He was such a nice guy, always smiling,” Singh said. “Ask everybody. He was a good boy. We miss him. Everybody is crying.”

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Kazem said the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is working with police in the shooting investigation, and noted there is video footage of the incident from the officer’s body-worn camera. In November 2015, Santa Clara outfitted all of its officers with body-worn cameras. Thursday’s shooting marks the first fatal officer-involved shooting since their deployment.

The involved officer will be required to give an initial account of events before he is permitted to view the body-camera video, Kazem said, which is in line with countywide guidelines that have been adopted by San Jose police and other local agencies.

The last fatal officer-involved shooting by Santa Clara police was on March 22, 2015, when officers on a late-night patrol pulled into a 7-Eleven at Scott Boulevard and Monroe Street — footsteps away from where Thursday’s shooting occurred — and saw a man with a gun standing at the counter.

The officers reported that the alleged robber pointed a gun at the clerk and fired a shot — but missed the clerk — and then ran out of the store. The officers said he ignored their orders to stop, and they opened fire fearing for their safety and others in the parking lot. The District Attorney’s Office declared the shooting was justified.