SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police said a man killed by police after intentionally crashing a car at the Chinese Consulate was armed with a knife, and a crossbow and arrows.
San Francisco Police Acting Commander Mark Im said an officer opened fire after Zhanyuan Yang failed to comply with orders to get on the ground and swung his knife toward the officer and a security guard.
Police scheduled a virtual town hall in the afternoon to update people on the investigation into the Oct. 9 crash that ended with the death of Yang. San Francisco police typically host such town halls within 10 days of fatal police shootings.
Yang, a 31-year-old San Francisco resident, rammed a car into the visa office of the consulate, which is in a residential neighborhood next to a major street.
Sergii Molchanov was in line waiting for his turn to submit his visa documents when he said the blue Honda sedan barreled in through the main doors at full speed, barely missing him.
Molchanov told The Associated Press that the car struck a wall and the driver was bleeding from his head as he got out of the car, yelling about the C.C.P., an abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party
The crash was condemned by the Chinese government and by the White House. It took place as San Francisco prepared to host next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a gathering of world leaders from Pacific Rim nations.
The San Francisco consulate has been targeted a number of times before. Among the most serious was a fire set by a Chinese man on New Year’s Day 2014 at the main entrance. It charred a section of the outside of the building.
The man, who was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, told authorities he was driven by voices he was hearing. He was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
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