SF officer shoots, kills suspect in Market Street stabbing

A San Francisco police officer walking a beat on a busy stretch of Market Street on Wednesday morning shot and killed a man in order to get him to stop stabbing a second man, officials said.

Police Chief Bill Scott said the stabbing was “in progress” when two patrol officers came upon the scene at 11:22 a.m. on the 900 block of Market Street, just southwest of the Westfield shopping mall and the Powell Street cable car turnaround and near a sandwich shop.

At least one officer fired at the man with the knife, who was pronounced dead at the scene, the chief said. The stabbing victim was rushed to a hospital, and police said he was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Neither man was immediately identified.

A picture posted to Twitter depicts a man wearing a Subway uniform sitting on the curb surrounded by police officers, his face covered in blood. Though police wouldn’t specify where the incident happened, investigators could be seen going in and out of the Subway on Market Street near Turk Street.

“These things, we really try to avoid them as much as we can, but we have a duty to protect the public,” said Scott, who was appointed chief in January by Mayor Ed Lee.

The shooting is under investigation by the Police Department’s homicide and internal affairs divisions as well as the district attorney’s office and the civilian Department of Police Accountability.

Several blocks of Market Street were shut down as police swarmed the area, which is typically bustling with downtown workers, local residents, shoppers, tourists and others.

A witness, 68-year-old Frank Ortiz, said he saw a police officer shoot a man in the chest. He said he did not see the interaction that preceded the shooting.

A passing street photographer, 34-year-old Josh Rosenthal of San Francisco, said he had been walking on Market Street a couple of hundred feet away from the shooting when two unmarked cars sped by him, sirens blaring. An officer pushed him back when he tried to get closer, he said.

“I haven’t seen anything like this happen in these blocks of Market,” Rosenthal said.

The area remained closed into the afternoon, as Muni buses were rerouted and pedestrians were advised to circle around the block.

Although some media outlets initially reported that a Muni employee was involved in the incident, spokesman Paul Rose said the reports were wrong.

It was the city’s first fatal police shooting since Scott, a former Los Angeles deputy chief, took over as head of the force. The last case occurred Oct. 14, when officers shot Nicholas McWherter, a 26-year-old Pacifica resident, in the Sunset District after McWherter opened fire on officers amid an apparent mental breakdown. Officer Kevin Downs was shot and seriously wounded by McWherter.

Vivian Ho, Filipa Ioannou and Michael Bodley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com, fioannou@sfchronicle.com, mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo, @obioannoukenobi, @michael_bodley