Update: Santa Monica police tell the Weekly the woman's condition has been upgraded to “stable.” More details after the jump.

In a scene straight out of a crime thriller, Santa Monica police shot and killed a man they say was in the act of stabbing his ex-girlfriend.

It happened Wednesday about 6:47 p.m. in the 2400 block of Ocean Park Boulevard, Santa Monica police told the Daily Press.

Officers responding to the residence apparently couldn't get through the front door and so climbed through a window and shot the suspect as he was stabbing the woman in her 40s and continued to do so after cops told him to stop, according to the paper and to City News News Service.

The victim was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, the Daily Press reports. The man, described as being in his 40s or 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene.


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The woman's current boyfriend told police before they entered that she was being attacked, the paper reports.

Ocean Park Boulevard from 23rd Street to 25th Street was closed Wednesday night while police investigated the shooting, Lt. Jay Trisler told the Daily Press.

Update: Santa Monica police say the man, a 59-year-old they called a “transient,” could not yet be identified because his next-of-kin hasn't been told of his death.

The woman is said to be 40.

Here's a riveting statement from the department about what went down:

… Officers made entry through a broken window. As officers entered the apartment, they heard struggling in the bedroom. As officers entered the room, they observed the victim lying on the floor with the suspect straddling her chest. The suspect was repeatedly stabbing the victim in the face and torso area. The suspect refused to obey the officers' commands to stop stabbing the victim. An officer-involved shooting ensued that resulted in the suspect being mortally wounded.

First posted at 11:18 p.m. Wednesday, April 13.

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