PICO RIVERA >> Coroner’s officials have released the identity of a 48-year-old man who died after being shot by sheriff’s deputies who responded to reports he was attacking family members with scissors in Pico Rivera on Christmas Eve.
Zhonghua Li, 48, of died in the deputy-involved shooting, which took place shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday outside a home at Greenglade Avenue and Kells Place, according to Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner records.
Deputies were first summoned to the home in regard to a family disturbance involving a man with mental health issues, Deputy Kimberly Alexander of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Information Bureau said. While en route, the call was updated to say the suspect was stabbing family members with a pair of scissors.
Two deputies arrived and confronted Li in the street, Alexander said in a written statement. He began walking toward the deputies with what was ultimately found to be a pair of “threading scissors,” Lt. Steve Jauch of the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said.
A deputy fired a bean bag round at Li, to no effect, and he continued approaching the deputies and refusing to drop the scissors, according to Alexander. Both deputies then fired their pistols, fatally wounding Li.
Li’s sister suffered a stab wound to her hand in the original family disturbance but declined to be taken to a hospital, Jauch said.