Police fatally shoot knife-wielding suspect inside shopping mall

A knife-wielding man at a Los Angeles shopping mall was shot and killed by authorities Tuesday night, according to police and witnesses.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene after police shot him following a stand-off inside the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. No officers were injured in the incident.

A witness told ABC's Los Angeles station KABC that the suspect appeared to be holding a long knife and that officers repeatedly told the man to drop the weapon before firing at him.

"I heard the officers patiently telling the guy, put it down, put it down, put it down," said Tim Williams, a former police officer who was at the mall at the time and watched the incident. "He kept gesturing and gesturing. He'd move toward them and move back. They still didn't shoot. They could have shot him then and they didn't."

According to Williams, the officers shot the suspect when he appeared to be lunging toward onlookers inside the mall.

"But when he took off toward where the people were, that's when they had to shoot him," he told KABC.

A woman, who spoke to KABC on condition of anonymity, said she was standing just a few feet away from the knife-wielding suspect.

"I saw one of the workers, I said 'What do I do?' She said, 'Just run. Just run,'" the woman said. "It was really scary because my life could have been gone right then and there."

The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for further comment.