http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/us/shooting-el-cajon-police.html 2016-09-28 09:13:23 Man in El Cajon, Calif., Is Shot During Confrontation With Police A black man who was walking in traffic and was said to be acting erratically was shot after he pointed an object at officers, the police said. === A black man who was walking in traffic in El Cajon, Calif., on Tuesday and who a caller described as “not acting like himself” was shot by a police officer after he pointed an object at the officers, the police said. The police would not release the man’s condition, and they said they had not recovered a weapon after the shooting. Asked about reports that the man had died, a spokesman for the El Cajon Police Department, Lt. Rob Ransweiler, said in an interview, “We are not denying that has taken place.” But he added that he could not confirm it because he did not know whether the family had been notified. At a news conference Tuesday night, Chief Jeff Davis of the El Cajon police, who also would not comment on the man’s condition, said that two officers had responded to reports of an African-American man in his 30s “walking in traffic, not only endangering himself but also motorists.” At least one of those reports was made by a woman who identified herself as the man’s sister, Chief Davis said, though he added that the police could not confirm her identity as she was not cooperating with them. She said that the man was mentally ill and that he was not armed, the chief said. A first officer arrived near the Broadway Village Shopping Center in the north-central section of the city shortly after 2 p.m., the police said. As that officer confronted the man behind a local restaurant, the man “concealed his hand in his pants pocket,” Chief Davis said, and refused to comply, leading the officer to draw a gun. A second officer arrived on the scene. The man continued to be uncooperative, so the second officer prepared to use a Soon after, Chief Davis said, the man quickly pulled an object from his pocket and took “what appeared to be a shooting stance,” leading the two officers to act simultaneously. One discharged his Taser, while the other fired his gun, the chief said. The officers provided medical assistance at the scene, and the man was taken to a hospital. The shooting in El Cajon, a city of more than 100,000 about 15 miles from San Diego, came after recent fatal police shootings of black men in Witnesses interviewed by local reporters were irate, insisting that the man had been unarmed when officers shot him. A man who said he had witnessed the shooting, Michael Rodriguez, told reporters that he had left a nearby apartment when he saw police officers with their guns out surrounding a black man. Mr. Rodriguez said that the man had his hands up and was “scared to death.” “He’s jerking, he’s confused, he runs this way, and as soon as he runs this way, they discharge,” Mr. Rodriguez said. The police disputed such accounts, Local But Chief Davis and Lieutenant Ransweiler strongly denied those reports, saying that a phone that contained a video had been volunteered by a witness, and that no phones had been confiscated. “I’m sure at some point in time that video will become public,” Lieutenant Ransweiler said.