Man with knife is hit by cars twice and shot by police

A Hesperia man who was on foot survived a two-vehicle crash Thursday morning, but was fatally shot by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies after he pointed a knife at them, authorities said.

According to a sheriff’s spokesman, 32-year-old Nicholas Robert Contreras was first struck by a vehicle at the intersection of Mariposa Road and Locust Avenue in Victorville.

Contreras picked himself up and continued walking before he was struck by a second vehicle near a gas station about a quarter-mile away, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies responding to 911 calls arrived at the scene shortly before 10 a.m., authorities said.

Neither collision “was severe enough to incapacitate or incapacitate Contreras,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Huerta said.

When officers approached Contreras, they discovered he was carrying a knife, authorities said.

Contreras refused officers’ orders to drop the knife, and as he approached them, officers opened fire on him, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The ministry’s Special Investigations Department is conducting the investigation.