San Ysidro

A man who brandished a toy gun was shot to death Sunday night by a Border Crime Prevention Unit officer on duty in a robbery-plagued area near the Mexican border, the San Diego Police Department reported.

About 11 p.m. Sunday, a team from the special unit noticed two men loitering near the border fence 300 yards east of the San Ysidro point of entry in a dark area that has been plagued with robberies of undocumented farm workers, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. A short time later, the men walked toward the officers, and one man, who was wearing a ski mask, pointed what appeared to be a gun at the officers, Robinson said.

The officers fired several shots, one of which struck the man in the head, killing him instantly, Robinson said. The second man ran back into Tijuana.

The dead man had no identification, but a plastic gun was recovered at the scene, Robinson said.

The shooting was the second this month and the ninth person killed this year by the Border Crime Prevention Unit, Robinson said. All the other people shot were robbery suspects, he said. Homicide detectives will investigate and submit their findings to the San Diego County district attorney’s office for review.