Man who crashed into Chinese consulate was armed with knife, crossbow

San Francisco police on Thursday offered the first official details of the attack on the Chinese consulate earlier this month. Zhanyuan Yang, who drove into the consulate, had a crossbow and arrows, police said. When confronted, Yang made “multiple, rapid downward swinging motions with the knife” toward Sergeant Troy Carrasco, the first officer to arrive on the scene, police said. Carrasco’s body cam footage appears to show Yang swinging the knife shortly before Carrasco shot him. Yang was then taken to a hospital, where he died.

Why did Yang attack the consulate? Police have served several warrants at Yang’s apartment but have not identified a motive, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said. Yang’s car on Oct. 9 crashed through the main doors at full speed, barely missing a line of people, police said. Yang got out and began yelling about the Chinese Communist Party before police arrived on the scene less than a minute later, witnesses said.

Dig deeper: Read June Cheng’s report in WORLD magazine about the work of the Early Rain church in China.