New York police have shot dead a black man after mistaking a piece of pipe he was holding for a gun.
The shooting, which came on the 50th anniversary of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr's assassination, is the latest in a string of killings by police that have sparked debate on violence by law enforcement.
Saheed Vassell, 34, was shot dead about 5pm Wednesday local time in Crown Heights, a predominantly black neighbourhood in the heart of Brooklyn.
Officers responded after receiving three 911 emergency calls saying a man was pointing an "object that appears to be a gun" at people on the street, said Terence Monahan, Chief of Department for the New York police.
When police approached, the man "took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers," Mr Monahan said.
Four officers fired 10 shots at the victim, a Jamaica-born welder and father of a teenage son. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The object the man was holding was not a gun, but rather "a pipe with some sort of knob on the end of it," Mr Monahan said.
Shortly after the shooting, dozens of people gathered at the scene, with many shouting and denouncing the conduct of the police, according to footage broadcast live on Facebook.
According to media reports, the victim was known in the neighbourhood.
The shooting came less than three weeks after police in the city of Sacramento fired 20 rounds at 22-year-old Stephon Clark, fearing he was carrying a weapon.
Clark, who was killed, was actually holding an iPhone.
Anger over the March 18 shooting erupted into days of protest in the streets of downtown Sacramento, with marchers blocking traffic and clashing with police in riot gear.
