Orbel Nazarians, 22

Orbel Nazarians, a 22-year-old white man, was shot and killed by Los Angeles police on Monday, Feb. 26, in the 9000 block of Kester Avenue in Panorama City, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.

Officers from LAPD’s Mission Division responded at 8:45 a.m. to a call about a man with a knife who wanted to kill himself, according to a news release from the department.

When officers arrived, they saw Nazarians, who exited a home with an “edged weapon,” said Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the LAPD.

Police tried to subdue Nazarians with a Taser and a bean-bag shotgun, but ultimately fatally shot the man, Eisenman said.

Nazarians was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:08 a.m., according to coroner’s records.

The day after the shooting, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Nazarians had a 20-inch metal spike and moved toward the officers, leading to the fatal shooting.

Beck said officers knew Nazarians and previously had placed him on 72-hour mental-health holds.

“This individual had been failed by the mental health system on multiple occasions,” Beck told police commissioners. “It was unfortunate that this occurred.”

The chief did not specify how many times police had encountered Nazarians before the shooting.

Josh Rubenstein, an LAPD spokesman, said police had received calls about the Panorama City area where the shooting occurred, but he did not know how many calls or when they had been made.

Rubenstein also said that a System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team, also called a SMART team, of LAPD officers and county workers trained to handle calls involving people who might be mentally ill was not at the scene.

The officers who met Nazarians wore body cameras and had a camera in their patrol car, Eisenman said. The department’s Force Investigation Division, which investigates all shootings by LAPD officers, was examining the cameras, she said.

The shooting was the second by Los Angeles police in just over a 24-hour span.

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @nicolesantacruz and @latimeshomicide on Twitter.