A man who was armed with a knife was shot and killed by at least one Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in the driveway of a home in an unincorporated area of Whittier late Sunday, authorities said.

Deputies first responded to the home in the 8000 block of Rexall Avenue about 8:10 p.m. after they received a call about a man holding a machete while yelling and banging on windows. Deputies and members of the agency’s mental evaluation team spoke with the man and his family, but they determined no crime had been committed so they left, said Deputy Tracy Koerner.

However, deputies were called back to the home roughly two hours later. The caller told officials that the man “wanted to be shot by police,” Koerner said.

When deputies arrived they found the same man they spoke with earlier standing in the driveway armed with a large knife. The man was holding it to a woman who authorities say is a family member. Deputies ordered the man to drop the weapon, but officials say he refused. Instead, he walked toward the deputies and was shot multiple times, Koerner said.


The man, identified by family members as 37-year-old Marco Antonio Vasquez, died at the scene. The woman was not injured.