A man who was killed by sheriff’s deputies in a hail of 30 bullets in front of a gas station here was brandishing a gun at officers and passers-by, and he apparently fired it into the air at least six times during the encounter, The New York Times quoted the police as saying Sunday.

The man, identified as Nicholas Robertson, 28, of Lynwood, was seen carrying a gun during the entire encounter on Saturday, the police said, displaying photographs and videos in which the gun was clearly visible in the suspect’s hand.

They said he had been acting erratically and had ignored the instructions of deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to drop his weapon, which officials described as a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

The killing was the most recent in a series of officer-involved shootings that have stirred turmoil and protests about police tactics in neighborhoods here and across the country.

In March, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department fatally shot a homeless man after, they said, he resisted arrest.

That attack was also caught on video.

Sources: MENA