San Ysidro

A man who was shot and killed at the international border early Monday was holding a pellet gun and not a plastic toy rifle as first described in official reports, San Diego police said.

The man, whose identification was being withheld pending notification of relatives, was killed by agents of the Border Crimes Task Force after he allegedly jumped from a bush, brandished what they thought was an M-16 rifle and shouted at the officers in Spanish.

Initial reports from police Monday said the man was actually holding a plastic toy rifle.

But police spokesman Dave Cohen said Tuesday that a photograph of the weapon showed it was a pellet rifle, made partly out of steel. The gun looks like an M-16 rifle, and has a magazine clip.