NEW YORK (AP) -- Police have shot and killed a man in Midtown Manhattan just blocks from Times Square.

Police say officers were trying to stop the man at about 3 p.m. SATURDAY when he began backing down Seventh Avenue near West 38th Street, carrying a knife.

Police say the man repeatedly refused orders to drop the weapon. They say officers sprayed him with PEPPER SPRAY, but he charged at them with the knife and was shot. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and was pronounced dead.

Witness Julian Miller told WABC Eyewitness News he saw the man emerge from the subway with a knife, "slicing it at random people" and apparently hitting someone in the face.

The area near Times Square is typically filled with tourists and other pedestrians at that hour.