A 27-year-old Compton man armed with a long, pointed wooden object last month rushed a Buena Park police officer who fatally shot him, according to dashcam video released by Buena Park police on Friday, Jan. 24.

The shooting occurred about 1 p.m. on Dec. 10, on Artesia Boulevard at the 5 Freeway, police said, with Chaz Mackabee dying at a hospital.

Buena Park police responded to a request for assistance from the California Highway Patrol, which had received calls that a man armed with a knife was walking in the southbound lanes of the 5 and attempting to stop passing vehicles, Buena Park police Sgt. Jon Shaddow said.

The suspect then walked to the southbound offramp to Artesia Boulevard.

“I feel like if a car gets close, he’s going to attack someone,” a truck driver tells a dispatcher, according to audio released by the department.

An arriving officer spots Mackabee walking along Artesia, stops his black-and-white SUV and gets out, dashcam video shows.

“It looks like a knife or a small little bat in his left hand,” the officer radios just before stopping the vehicle.

He tells Mackabee to “sit down” six times as Mackabee walks on the sidewalk toward him. Then as Mackabee begins a sprint into the street toward the officer, the officer yells, “Don’t do it!” twice, dashcam video shows.

Mackabee has the object in his left hand, video shows. The wood was perhaps six inches to a foot long.

The officer fires three shots, causing Mackabee to fall forward out of the camera’s view.

A pointed wooden stick allegedly wielded by a suspect in Buena Park was found on the ground after the suspect was shot by an officer on Artesia Boulevard near the 5 Freeway, Dec. 10. (Courtesy of Buena Park Police Department)

“Don’t do it, man! I told you not to do it,” the officer says before radioing a shots-fired dispatch and requesting paramedics. “Dude I told you not to do it, dude. C’mon, man.”

Another officer with a less-lethal beanbag shotgun was running toward Mackabee and the officer when the shooting occurred, according to the second officer’s body-worn camera.

Officers attempted to help Mackabee before paramedics took him to a hospital.

The shooting was not captured on the involved officer’s body-worn camera, as it was knocked off while the officer got out of the vehicle, Shaddow said.

Buena Park police and the Department of Justice were conducting investigations into the shooting.

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