Long Beach police say they’re investigating a homicide at a small market on Pacific Coast Highway where an employee said he stabbed someone who was attacking him Friday morning.

Police said the incident happened around 10:30 a.m. at the PCH Beer & Wine Market, which is on PCH at Chestnut Avenue.

An employee at the store called police to say he was attacked by a man and he “defended himself by stabbing the suspect one time before the suspect fled,” the LBPD said in a statement.

When police arrived at the scene, they found the wounded man on the sidewalk near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Cedar Avenue, about a block from the store, according to the LBPD. He’d been stabbed once in the upper body and later died, police said.

“Both liquor store employees remained on scene, did not require medical attention, and are cooperating with the investigation,” police said.

Forensics and homicide investigators were still processing the scene Friday afternoon.

Neighbors said the area around the liquor store can be rough. One woman pulled up in a truck and called out to a detective, asking if the owners had been killed. When he said no, she put her hand to her chest in relief and drove off.

Police did not release the names of either man involved in the stabbing. The deceased man is a 32-year-old resident of San Bernardino, police said, and the employee who stabbed the man is a 51-year-old resident of Norwalk.

Detectives are still investigating.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with more information from police.