The Santa Monica Police Department released a critical incident briefing video on the August 22, 2026 officer-involved shooting in the 1400 block of Palisades Park in Santa Monica, California. The video includes body-worn camera footage. This is the department’s video as the department released it.
According to the department, at about 12:30 p.m. two uniformed Santa Monica officers responded to Broadway and Ocean Avenue on a report of a man chasing a woman near the Broadway stairs. They began speaking with witnesses in the 1400 block of Palisades Park. Numerous pedestrians, visitors and vendors were in the park that Saturday afternoon.
While the officers were gathering witness statements, and unrelated to the call they were investigating, both officers saw a man holding a large knife above his head, moving toward one of the officers and several people standing nearby. The officer drew his firearm. Both officers repeatedly ordered the man to put the knife down.
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The department says the man did not comply and kept moving toward the officer with the knife raised. The officer backed up. The man increased his pace and kept closing the distance. As he approached with the knife still raised, the officer fired his department-issued firearm.
Officers removed a second knife from the man’s pants pocket and saw the handle of another knife protruding from his backpack. They applied gauze and a chest seal and performed chest compressions until Santa Monica Fire Department personnel arrived and took over care. He was pronounced deceased at approximately 1:49 p.m. No officers or members of the public were injured.
Santa Monica Police Department detectives are conducting the criminal investigation. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will review the shooting, and the department’s Internal Affairs Section is conducting a separate administrative investigation. The department says these investigations and reviews are ongoing.
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