Customer with concealed firearm confronts, kills man with knife inside BBQ restaurant

A man who ran through a restaurant with a knife in Cerritos was shot and killed Sunday afternoon by a customer carrying a concealed firearm, authorities said.

The man entered Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que restaurant armed with a knife around 2:12 p.m. in the 11300 block of South Street, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department news release.

After entering the restaurant, the man ran through the kitchen and service areas before he was confronted by a customer who was armed with a gun and had a concealed carry permit, according to the release. The customer asked the man to drop the knife but instead, the man allegedly charged at the customer, who shot him.

Deputies found the man suffering from a gunshot wound and lacerations, according to the release.

Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel pronounced the man dead at the scene. The customer who shot him stayed at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation.

ABC7 reported that the man had stabbed himself before entering the restaurant.

“I just saw a guy run in the restaurant with his throat slit, and he had a knife,” an employee of the restaurant told the TV station. “Once he went to the main dining area with all the guests, I guess there was another guest that was sitting down. He pointed a gun at him, told him to put the knife down, the guy kept walking toward him like Michael Myers. He shot him.”

The man had also been driving a vehicle shortly before the incident, witnesses said.

“I noticed a driver driving recklessly into the plaza. He just left the car there, ran off to Lucille’s, and it seemed like he had a knife in his hand, and he was also wounded,” Magaly Zacarias told ABC7. “I got a closer look at the car, and it seems like there was already blood all over the steering wheel and inside of the car.”