Burbank Officer Kills Man Outside Apartment : Violence: Police say the tenant pointed a pellet gun at them. But neighbors dispute the account and say they did not hear any warnings before the shooting.

A Burbank police officer Friday shot and killed a man who police said pointed a pellet gun at the officer’s partner. It was the first fatal shooting by a Burbank officer in more than a decade, police said.

Police said the shooting appears justified but several neighbors said they did not hear officers give any warnings before shooting Luis Edward (Patrick) Arevalo three times as he stood outside his apartment in the 1900 block of West Victory Boulevard.

“He didn’t point the weapon at them. He stopped and stood still when the cops came,” said Nick Garcia, 30. He and his wife said they saw the shooting from their bedroom window, which overlooks the street. “The cops fired right away,” he said.

Arevalo, 26, was pronounced dead minutes after the 5 a.m. shooting, Burbank Police Lt. Larry Koch said.

The officers, whose names were not released, went to the apartment about 11 p.m. Thursday when Arevalo’s wife called to say her husband hit her, broke a window and then left, Koch said. She called again about 4:45 a.m. and two officers who responded saw Arevalo standing near the front door with a gun, Koch said.

The officers ordered Arevalo to drop the weapon, but he pointed it at them, Koch said. One of the officers fired three times, Koch said. Burbank police said the case is under investigation.

Arevalo’s wife was not home Friday night. But Nick and Daisy Garica said they were in their bedroom when they heard Arevalo outside his home yelling to his wife about someone breaking into their car. Arevalo may have been asking his wife to call police, they said.

The Garcias said they saw Arevalo walk back toward his front door with the pellet gun in his left hand when two police cars pulled up, one car stopping on Victory Boulevard and the other on Lamer Street.

“The cops fired right away,” Nick Garcia said. “There was no warning. . . . They didn’t say anything before shooting.”

But “after the shooting we heard one of the cops yell ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’ ” Daisy Garcia said.

Another neighbor, who said he saw the incident from a different angle, also said he did not hear the police give any warning. “I saw the car pull up but I didn’t realize it was police until after they shot him,” said the neighbor who identified himself only as Mike.

The man said he saw the incident from his bedroom, which was not as close to the shooting as the Garcias’ apartment. But he said he could see Arevalo walking back toward the apartment and he said he did not see Arevalo point the weapon at officers.

Apartment manager Franz Orsan and the other neighbors said they knew of no incidents of violence in the Arevalo home.

“He seemed pretty mellow. He liked to joke around a lot,” Orsan said. “He never seemed aggressive at all.”