A customer at a barbecue restaurant in Cerritos shot and killed a man who had allegedly walked inside armed with a knife Sunday afternoon, July 19, authorities said.
The man entered Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, 11338 South St., in the Landmark Square shopping center just before 2:15 p.m. and ran through the kitchen and service areas with the knife, scaring customers and staff, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
An armed customer with a concealed carry permit told the man to drop the knife, but the man allegedly ran toward the customer and the customer shot him, officials said.
The man had a gunshot wound and multiple lacerations, sheriff’s officials said. He died at the scene.
An unnamed employee told ABC7 that the man entered the restaurant with a stab wound to his throat and said what he saw was straight out of a horror film.
“Once he went to the main dining area with all the gusts, I guess there was another guest that was sitting down,” the employee told the station. “He pointed the gun at him, told him to put the knife down, the guy kept walking toward him like Michael Myers. He shot him.”
Crime scene tape surrounded the restaurant as well as a red pickup truck that was parked in a paved fountain area and missing its passenger side rearview mirror across the street, according to footage from OnScene TV, a freelance news organization that sometimes works with the Southern California News Group. It wasn’t immediately clear if or how the truck was related to the homicide investigation.
The customer who shot the knife-wielding man remained at the scene and was cooperating with the investigation, the Sheriff’s Department said, adding that the customer was legally armed. No arrests were announced as of Sunday night.
The restaurant sits in a busy shopping center across the street from the Los Cerritos Center. Just over a month ago, Darnell Jones,15, was also fatally shot near the mall outside a Chick-Fil-A restaurant in the 18600 block of Gridley Road.