Desmond Pescaia wasn’t feeling great and had been looking forward to a relaxing day at home Sunday.

But sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., a stranger started banging on his front door.

Pescaia’s peace-and-quiet soon turned to horror as the man wound up shot on the floor of his home, fatally wounded by a Portland police officer who was trying to arrest him.

Pescaia had opened the door to find the man on his doorstep, dressed in a blue shirt, khaki pants, socks but no shoes with a multicolored blanket.

The man told him that “some guy named Ernest’’ had directed him to the house to get help. The stranger claimed someone was after him, trying to kill him. He also told Pescaia he had been released from a hospital.

Pescaia gave the man some water as he waited outside. Pescaia also offered him $10 to catch a MAX train and to get something to eat, but the man didn’t oblige. Pescaia told the man he needed to go, then closed the door.

About 15 to 20 minutes later, Pescaia looked out and saw the man sleeping on the front stoop right outside his door under an awning.

Pescaia contacted his landlord, Lidiya Omelchenko, who lives next door, and she advised him to call police. She also called police.

Pescaia told a 911 dispatcher that he asked the man three times to leave his property but now the man was sleeping on the front porch.

“I just wanted police to have him trespassed from here,’’ Pescaia said Monday.

According to Portland police, an East Precinct officer responded about 2 p.m. to a report of an “unwanted person” at the home in the 9600 block of Southeast Market Street. They later identified the officer as Consider Vosu, who has been with the Police Bureau for a year and 11 months.

Pescaia said the uniformed officer arrived about 10 minutes after his call.

Once Vosu pulled up in a marked car, the man on the porch started pounding again on Pescaia’s front door. The man was shouting that he wouldn’t go with the officer because he had a fake badge, Pescaia recalled.

Pescaia said he grabbed a walking stick and threatened the stranger, still outside.

“I tell this kid you need to leave or I’m going to beat you with it,’’ said Pescaia, who at 50, is about 6 feet tall and 280 pounds. Pescaia described the stranger as a young African American man, about 6 feet tall and thin. Police said the man was 36 years old but haven’t yet released his name.

The officer, now at the base of the front stairwell outside Pescaia’s home, advised Pescaia to put down the walking stick because he didn’t want to have to arrest him as well. The officer also advised Pescaia to close the door and that he’d handle it, but Pescaia remained in the doorway with the door open.

When Pescaia put down the stick, he said the stranger burst through the front door and into the home.

Vosu followed and started to wrestle with the man in the front living room, Pescaia said. Vosu was on top of the man trying to turn him onto his stomach to place handcuffs on him. Pescaia said he stood nearby, trying to help.

Then the stranger broke loose and kind of kicked the officer backward and into the rear bedroom, Pescaia said.

The man started coming toward Vosu, who remained in the back bedroom. Pescaia said he tried to hold the intruder as Vosu ordered the man to stand down. Vosu told the stranger that he would use his Taser if he didn’t follow orders, Pescaia said.

Shortly after, the officer fired the stun gun.

The stranger fell onto the floor at the doorway between the living room and bedroom, but the Taser didn’t stop him for long, Pescaia said.

“He goes down and starts right back up, yelling ain’t no Taser was going to stop him,’’ Pescaia said.

At some point, the intruder pulled out a martial arts-type throwing knife and ran toward the officer, the tenant said.

Vosu, still in the back bedroom, this time fired three shots from his handgun -- “at close range,” Pescaia said. He estimated the stranger was less than 2 feet from the officer.

"All I heard was 3 pops,'' said Pescaia, who was standing in the living room. He saw the stranger fall on his back at the entry to the bedroom and a knife fall to his right side. The knife had double blade, he said. Police later said they seized a knife found inside the home as evidence. They released a photo of it that shows a 3 1/2-inch blade.

Portland police on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, released a photo of a knife they said they found at the scene of a fatal shooting by an officer of a stranger who entered a man's home. The tenant of the home said the stranger pulled a knife on the officer.

“I ran outside, and I was dry heaving,'' Pescaia said. "”I thank God I wasn’t shot.''

Vosu had requested backup, but the shooting occurred before any backup arrived, police said. The officer alerted emergency dispatchers that he had fired shots and a man was injured.

The man was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was declared dead, according to police.

Pescaia said he sat in a TriMet bus for about six hours outside his house as he was interviewed by a homicide detective and spoke to a police chaplain.

"All he had to do was leave,'' Pescaia said of the stranger. "I think he was hopped on something.''

Pescaia said he’s struggled with drug and alcohol abuse in his own life and was tempted to grab a bottle of vodka or whiskey Sunday night to deal with his anguish but didn’t. When he returned home, he found one of the officer’s bullets had pierced the rose-decorated wallpaper in a corner of his living room.

Pescaia said the officer’s actions were justified.

But the deadly outcome haunts him, he said.

"Why me? Why this? Could I have done more? Could I have done better?'' he said he keeps asking himself. “It’s really overwhelming to know I had 40 officers on my side to take care of this” once the officer radioed that shots were fired.

"At the same time, I really don’t know what more I could have done,'' Pescaia said.

Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and Mayor Ted Wheeler responded to the scene Sunday. Vosu has been placed on paid administrative leave under standard police policy. Police will identify the man after relatives are notified, they said. An autopsy has been completed.

It was the first fatal shooting by Portland police this year.

“Based on witness statements and physical evidence, detectives believe the officer deployed his Taser,” police said in a news release Monday. “Detectives believe the Taser was not effective and the officer then fired his duty firearm, striking the suspect.”

The Police Bureau remains under a federal settlement reached after a U.S. Justice Department investigation found officers often used excessive force against people with mental illness. In 2018, Portland police shot and killed three people and wounded two others in confrontations.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian