Report: S.F. police fatally shoot man after fake gun threat

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man brandishing a fake gun was shot and killed by police Sunday outside a San Francisco police station, reports CBS San Francisco.

The 32-year-old man was shot multiple times in the parking lot of the Mission District police station after authorities say he acted erratically and appeared to threaten officers with a weapon, which turned out to be fake, reports the station.

The incident reportedly began around 5:20 p.m. Sunday when police noticed the man in the police station parking lot, which is restricted and not open to the public.

Three police sergeants approached the man and asked him to leave, police told CBS San Francisco. He reportedly began to walk away, but stopped and turned to confront the officers. As he was facing them, police say he began to back away while also reaching his hands into his waistband, revealing the butt of a gun.

That's when police say he pulled the weapon out and brandished it at the sergeants. Police shot him multiple times, police told the station. The man was transported to a hospital where he underwent surgery, but he later died.

Police discovered later that he was carrying an airsoft gun, which can shoot pellets, but not bullets.

"We don't know his motive or why he challenged the officers or approached them in the first place," Officer Albie Esparza told the station. "It was very erratic behavior by the suspect, very unusual."

Hours before the shooting, the same man reportedly approached different officers several blocks away and asked what kinds of guns officers carried, reported the station. When he later brandished the fake weapon at the sergeants, police say it didn't have an orange tip or anything else to indicate it was a toy.

The man has not been identified.