At least two Honolulu police officers shot at a man coming at them with a knife after an attempt to stop him with a Taser proved ineffective, Deputy Chief John McCarthy said Tuesday.

Four officers who responded to a theft complaint at the NomNom convenience store in Kalihi in the early morning of Sept. 27 found the suspect, a man in his 30s, in the Foodland parking lot at Dillingham Plaza. He had a bottle of alcohol and the knife, McCarthy said.

Police on Tuesday played for reporters the Taser video, which was largely obscured — possibly by the officer’s hand or how he had it braced, McCarthy said. The video camera for Tasers are at the bottom of the grip. However, the audio could be heard.

Officers repeatedly told the man to drop what McCarthy described as a fishing knife with a 7-inch blade. The man was holding the knife over his head as he ran toward the officers.

“Don’t do it. Just put the knife down,” one officer is heard saying.

At least five times officers told the man to drop the knife, before the Taser can be heard discharging and more than six shots were fired seconds later.

“He was already starting toward the officers, and they were in rather close proximity,” McCarthy said. “The Taser was deployed, from what we understand, from less than 15 feet.”

The man was taken in extremely critical condition to a hospital where he died. McCarthy said two of the officers are still being investigated, but both are back on duty.

McCarthy said Police Chief Susan Ballard couldn’t be at the briefing, “but had promised to try and release the video as soon as possible.” McCarthy said there was no other video from the scene.

About two seconds after the Taser was unsuccessfully deployed, the shots were fired, he said.

“One thing with the Taser, if the Taser’s activated and it hits you, you know immediately if it’s effective or not,” McCarthy said. The suspect had become more aggressive and came at officers, causing them to shoot, he said.

McCarthy said he was not sure how many officers fired or how many shots were fired.

It was the second failure of a Taser to incapacitate a suspect in a relatively short period of time. McCarthy said a number of factors can cause a Taser to fail, including one of two prongs not hitting the body or loose or thick clothes interfering with contact.

McCarthy said every Taser deployment is reviewed. The recent failures are “concerning,” he said.

“We do look at it. Sometimes it happens,” he said. “You might have two in a row, and then you might have none for the next 10 times we use the Taser.”