The shooting happened under the Scott overpass. Those who knew the man are shocked.
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Santa Clara police got a call around 5 p.m. from a home on Deborah Drive.
"We had received some information from the caller in regards to their son who was acting erratically," said Captain Wahid Kazem of the Santa Clara police department.
Officers arrived and found the man in question, but they say he took off. Kazem says an officer deployed a taser at some point, but it's not known if it had any effect.
"During their contact with the officer, the incident transitioned into a situation where an officer had to use deadly force," Kazem told ABC7 News.
Police say the man who was shot and killed was in his mid 20's. Neighbors say he lived with his parents and they're a nice family.
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"He was very nice. Every morning when I saw a couple times he would say, 'Good morning,'" said neighbor Marisol. "I never hear that he was with bad guys. I never saw that. That's why I don't understand what happened."
Police are not yet saying if the man was armed. The officer who shot him has been with the Santa Clara police for eight years and was with another agency before that.
He's now on administrative leave.
The district attorney's office is conducting its own investigation into the shooting.