#Lancaster man killed by cop was previously busted in quadruple stabbing

The blade-wielding Pennsylvania man shot dead by police — triggering destructive protests demanding justice — was previously busted in 2019 for knifing four people in the city, according to his lawyer and officials.

Before Ricardo Munoz, 27, made the fatal decision to rush a cop while waving a knife on Sunday, he was charged with stabbing or slashing two men, a woman and a 16-year-old boy in and near a Lancaster home in March of last year.

“He is the individual who was shot yesterday,” confirmed public defender Elizabeth Low, who represented Munoz in the aggravated assault case.

In that incident, cops responding to a 911 call for a stabbing found Munoz standing on the street, holding a knife to his own throat, according to a law-enforcement press release.

When officers ordered Munoz to drop the blade, he instead tried to vault a handrail outside a nearby home, officials said.

A cop then zapped Munoz with a Taser, and they were able to take him into custody.

When officers entered the home Munoz tried to flee into, they found four people with stab or slash wounds: Two 26-year-old men, a 22-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy.

Investigators found that the bloodshed began when Munoz was jumped and beaten up outside the home, authorities said.

He then grabbed the knife from a backpack, pushed inside and took his revenge.

All four of the victims, who are related to each other, survived.

It wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the initial confrontation.

Munoz was charged with four counts of felony assault, and initially held on $1 million bail, according to court records and Low.

He made the hefty sum a short time later and, until last month, had been ordered under house arrest at his mother’s home on Laurel Street — the same building from which he charged at a cop on Sunday.

A single officer was responding to a domestic incident at the home when Munoz burst through the front door and rushed at the lawman, holding a knife high, harrowing body-cam video of the incident shows.

The cop opened fire, killing Munoz.

The killing sent dozens of protesters into the streets of Lancaster, some of them vandalizing cop cars and hurling bricks as they converged on a local police stationhouse.