Man armed with axe is shot and killed by LASD deputies in Compton after threatening a store employee

A man who was allegedly armed with an axe was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Compton Thursday afternoon, just minutes after he apparently threatened an employee at a nearby store.

It all unfolded around 12:15 p.m. at an AmPm convenience store in the 2000 block of South Santa Fe Avenue.

While L.A. County Sheriff’s Department officials provided very little information about the incident, the store owner told KTLA that the armed man tried to attack his employee with an axe and was trying to steal items.

Surveillance video provided by the store shows a man in a gray hoodie swinging a small axe at an employee before leaving the store and coming back a couple of times.

The man eventually left the area, but deputies tracked him to the nearby Towne Center shopping plaza, where some kind of confrontation took place.

Authorities shot the man while he was still armed with the axe, Sheriff’s Department officials said. He was struck by gunfire and taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.