A Pittsburgh police officer yesterday shot and killed a man who wielded a meat cleaver while threatening his landlord and the officer on a street corner in Oakland.

The officer, a 15-year veteran of the force, responded to a report of a landlord-tenant dispute at 3 p.m. on Atwood Street and spoke to the unidentified landlord outside the three-story building.

According to Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper, the uniformed officer returned to his patrol car just before the tenant emerged from the building with a meat cleaver held in both hands. The officer drew his weapon and retreated, all the while telling the tenant to drop the weapon.

"The subject did not comply and began to aggressively approach the officer," Chief Harper said, "at which time the officer fired one shot, fatally wounding the subject."

Police officials did not identify the officer who fired the shot, but sources identified him as Eric Tatusko.

The victim was identified as Nang Nguyen, 46, a Vietnamese man whom neighbors said had acted erratically in the past and occasionally apologized to them for his behavior. Shot in the chest, he was pronounced dead at the scene at the corner of Atwood and Bates streets, in front of the Mad Mex restaurant.

Dennis Raspanti, 25, of 347 Atwood St., said he saw the incident from his front porch.

"[The officer] did ask him about three or four times to put the knife down," Mr. Raspanti said. "But he kept approaching him, and he shot him."

"It was pretty gruesome," said Tim Tompkins, 18, of 335 Atwood St., who also saw the shooting from Mr. Raspanti's porch. "It was as basic as you could have it. [The officer] put the man down. There was no fight after that. He dropped right where he stood."

Mr. Tompkins said the incident started inside the apartment building and caught his attention when the landlord came running out calling for help. Police, who had been called by the landlord from a phone inside the building, arrived within five minutes, Chief Harper said.

That's when the tenant emerged from the building.

"The guy was coming after [the landlord] with a hatchet," Mr. Tompkins said. "I went up there and seen it. It was a pretty decent knife, and he was holding it up in the air. He had it up in the air from the time he came out of the apartment until he got shot."

Officer Tatusko has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, as is department policy in such situations.

Chief Harper, speaking at a news conference a few blocks away, told reporters the investigation of the shooting is being conducted by the district attorney's office and city homicide detectives.

The chief was accompanied by several officials, including Police Cmdr. George Trosky, Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson, Public Safety Director Michael Huss and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

"I wanted to be here today to show my support for the safety of both the police officers involved as well as the residents in the surrounding area," said Mr. Ravenstahl, who said he was satisfied that police thus far had handled the incident properly.

"Anytime you have a shooting like this, it's certainly very unfortunate," Mr. Ravenstahl said, "but I'm comfortable that being that the district attorney and the [Bureau of Homicide] are involved, they'll have a thorough investigation done and come back with their ruling on the shooting.

"I want to assure the residents that safety is our No. 1 priority. We've seen a spike [in violence] here recently and that's of concern to me and, I know, the police department as well. It's something we're trying to work through as we embark on the summer months."