Story highlights Officers circled the man, who was in a wheelchair, telling him to put his hands up 
 
 The chief says the man reached for the gun; his mother disputes this claim 
 
 (CNN) Police officers, their guns raised, approach the man in the wheelchair and yell out loudly and repeatedly: "Drop the gun" and "hands up." 
 
 His hands don't rise. Shots are fired. And the man keels over out of his wheelchair and onto the ground. 
 
 The police chief in Wilmington, Delaware, defended his officers Thursday. The handicapped man, Jeremy McDole, was armed with a .38-caliber gun -- the same one he'd apparently used on himself earlier, Chief Bobby Cummings said. And he never complied with the officers' requests. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Police shoot man in wheelchair Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Police shoot man in wheelchair 01:48 
 
 Instead, "when Mr. McDole began to remove the weapon from his waist, the officers engaged him," Cummings said. In other words, the officers opened fire because they were concerned McDole might fire his weapon at them. 
 
 But the man's mother saw it differently. 
 
 Read More ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Phyllis McDole, the mother of Jeremy McDole who was shot and killed by police officers on Wednesday afternoon, crashed Mayor Dennis P. Williams' press conference on the shooting at his office on Thursday afternoon. DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL 
 
 Jeremy McDole, 28, was shot and killed by Wilmington police at Tulip and Scott streets on Sept. 23. (Photo: .) 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon, Wilmington police received a 911 call about a man in a wheelchair with a self-inflicted wound. 
 
 A witness on the scene shot a cellphone video showing one officer pointing a shotgun or a rifle at the man in the wheelchair, screaming at him “drop the gun” and “hands up.” 
 
 The man in the wheelchair appears to be bleeding. Three more officers, with handguns drawn, appear on the scene and scream at him to drop the gun. 
 
 The man fidgets, moving his legs with his hands, rubbing his knees with both hands, trying to raise himself out of the wheelchair. 
 
 Then he slides his hand up his thigh toward his waist and officers open fire. Several shots ring out. For a moment, the man in the wheelchair freezes, then falls sideways onto the ground. Motionless. 
 
 No gun is visible in the video, which was posted on YouTube. 
 
 WARNING: Graphic video 
 
 On Thursday, a day after the shooting, Police Chief Bobby Cummings said Jeremy “Bam” McDole was armed and reaching for a weapon. 
 
 McDole’s family, at a gathering about an hour before the city’s press conference, disputed those findings and called for a federal investigation. McDole’s mother, Phyllis, said her son did not have a weapon and would never harm himself. 
 
 “This was murder,” she said. “He shot my son like he was roadkill.” 
 
 Cummings said officers responded to a 911 call at 3 p.m. Wednesday about a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound who was armed in the 1800 block of Lancaster Avenue. 
 
 When officers arrived, he said, they located the man in the 1800 block of Tulip Street, where they repeatedly told him to put down his weapon and raise his arms. 
 
 McDole, 28, did not comply and reached for his waistband for a handgun, Cummings said. When McDole began to remove the gun, four officers opened fire. The chief said police found a .38 caliber gun at McDole’s side. 
 
 Cummings would not divulge the names or race of the officers involved in the shooting, or if any had any prior encounters with McDole. 
 
 The four officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave. 
 
 “I’m sorry for the officers and family of Mr. McDole, as this encounter unfortunately ended with the loss of his life,” said Cummings. “I know that this incident could impact police and community relations, therefore, I will ensure a thorough and transparent investigation will be conducted.” 
 
 The city police department has been working to improve relations with its residents in the past year. Officers get sensitivity training and recruits are taught about cultural diversity. 
 
 The state Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is investigating the shooting, said spokesman Carl Kanefsky, which is policy any time a police officer fires a weapon that injures or kills someone. 
 
 Local activist Keith James, who helped plan local rallies following acts of police brutality across the country, said for once, he’s standing on the side of police. 
 
 James, who is president of Voices 4 the Voiceless and a member of the Citizen Advisory Council for the Wilmington Police Department, believes the shooting was justified after watching cell phone video posted online and said officers were in a dangerous situation. 
 
 “From what I see, they handled it in a justified manner,” he said. “If he didn’t have a weapon, that would be a whole different story.” 
 
 Noting his history with activism, he said he would be the first person to criticize city police officers for doing something wrong, as he’s done in the past. But this time, he’s confident in the work of local law enforcement. 
 
 At a vigil for McDole Thursday night, mourners spelled out “RIP BAM” in tea lights in front of his mother’s home. Many came to pay their respects to the man they believe was unjustly killed. 
 
 About 30 relatives and friends also gathered at the scene of the shooting Thursday morning to mourn McDole. Most were angry at police for what they say was an unjustified use of force. A few placed flowers or candles nearby. 
 
 Relatives gathered later at McDole’s mother’s home on North Rodney Street where they disputed the police account. 
 
 “He wasn’t bothering anybody. He didn’t have a weapon or anything,” said Phyllis McDole. “He stood up and pulled his pants up and sat back down and put his hands on his lap and they opened fire on him.” 
 
 “They shot my son so much he fell out of the wheelchair,” she said breaking into tears. “He fell out the chair and on the ground. He wasn’t armed. He didn’t have a gun. He died by himself. He died alone.” 
 
 McDole, a skinny woman with a big voice and carefully tied braids around the crown of her head, said her son was a happy man who loved spending time with family, especially his nephew. 
 
 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Phyllis McDole describes seeing her son's death in a video on YouTube and Facebook after he was shot by police on Wednesday afternoon. JENNA PIZZI/THE NEWS JOURNAL 
 
 “I raised my son to be a good kid,” she said. “He wasn’t a troublemaker. Every day he came here at 12 o’clock and took his nephew to the store to get water ice. What am I supposed to tell his nephew tomorrow when he doesn’t come to take him to get a water ice?” 
 
 McDole added that she doesn’t have the financial means to bury her son and asked for anyone who might be able to help financially to reach out. 
 
 As Mayor Dennis P. Williams was explaining later at the city press conference that the family will be kept in the loop every step of the way, Phyllis McDole stood up from the crowd and demanded answers now. 
 
 She then went to the podium and Williams stepped aside. 
 
 “This was an injustice,” she said. 
 
 State NAACP President Richard Smith also spoke, calling for an independent investigation from outside officials. He said police officers can’t be investigating police officers in the same city. 
 
 Smith said his group arranged for McDole’s family to meet Thursday with civil rights attorneys from Delaware. At this point, the city and the state need closure, Smith said. 
 
 “We can’t treat poor folks the way we’ve been treating them,” he said. “They have a right to live. They have a right to breathe.” 
 
 McDole was paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot in the back about 10 years ago and was living at the Hillside Center nursing home on the 800 block of South Broom Street, according to McDole’s great uncle, Vincent Smith. 
 
 “We want justice for my brother,” Ashley Morrison-Wright, 23, of Wilmington, said Thursday. “This isn’t right.” 
 
 Her brother spent a lot of time with family members, especially his grandparents, who lived near his home in Wilmington, she said. 
 
 “He was a very, very sweet man,” Morrison-Wright said. His sister said McDole never owned a gun. 
 
 Neighborhood reaction 
 
 Buy Photo (Photo: WILLIAM BRETZGER/THE NEWS JOURNAL) 
 
 The shooting and video elicited strong reaction in the community and on social media. 
 
 “The mayor’s office and police department is aware of the video footage,” city spokeswoman Alexandra Coppadge said, “and will continue to conduct a thorough investigation of the officer-involved shooting.” 
 
 Anthony Slaughter is a friend and mentor to McDole who said he met with him just a few days before his death. 
 
 “It is very disturbing – the footage,” he said. “He wasn’t doing anything in a violent motion. If there was a gun, it would have fallen to the ground when he fell. There was no gun.” 
 
 Slaughter and others gathered Thursday morning said they don’t have faith that an investigation by the state will bring justice. 
 
 “In a situation like this, the police shouldn’t be investigating themselves,” Slaughter said. 
 
 Merrell Watson said he passed by McDole on the street shortly before the shooting. 
 
 “He wasn’t doing anything violent,” Watson said. “I honestly feel that officers abused their privilege. They are supposed to protect and serve, and they didn’t do that.” 
 
 Esteban Parra and Jessica Masulli Reyes contributed to this story. Contact robin brown at rbrown@delawareonline.com, Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@delawareonline.com and Brittany Horn at bhorn@delawareonline.com. 
 
 WITNESSES SOUGHT 
 
 Officials of the state Department of Justice, investigating Wednesday’s fatal shooting involving Wilmington Police Department officers, said Thursday that they ask anyone with “direct information” about the incident to call Special Investigator Frank Robinson at (302) 577-8707. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1Fi5Aps ||||| WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The police shooting of a man in a wheelchair was "unjust," his mother said Thursday, but authorities described a different scenario, saying the man was pulling a handgun from his waist when officers shot him to death. 
 
 The scene of where Delaware police officers fatally shot an armed man Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, in wheelchair after responding to a call that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, is seen Thursday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The scene of where Delaware police officers fatally shot an armed man Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, in wheelchair after responding to a call that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, is seen Thursday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The scene of where Delaware police officers fatally shot an armed man Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, in wheelchair after responding to a call that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, is seen Thursday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Flowers lie near the scene of where Delaware police officers fatally shot an armed man Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, in wheelchair after responding to a call that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, is... (Associated Press) 
 
 The shooting happened on a narrow street in Wilmington on Wednesday around 3 p.m. Officers responded to a 911 call of a man who had shot himself, and when they arrived, 28-year-old Jeremy McDole was "still armed with a handgun," Police Chief Bobby Cummings said during a news conference. 
 
 McDole's mother, Phyllis McDole, interrupted the briefing. 
 
 "He was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. There's video showing that he didn't pull a weapon ... I need answers," she said. 
 
 Cummings said officers approached McDole and told him to put the weapon down. As McDole was removing the gun from his waist, officers "engaged him." 
 
 "I assure you that not one of those officers intended to take anyone's life that day," Cummings said. 
 
 Video of the shooting posted online, which the chief said appeared to be authentic, shows an officer approaching McDole with a gun drawn, shouting "show me your hands" and "drop the gun." Other officers then appear in the video with their guns drawn, yelling similar commands. 
 
 McDole moves around in his wheelchair and reaches into his jeans, but it's unclear from the video what he is doing. The officers, who are not in the video at this point, fire multiple shots and McDole falls out of his wheelchair. 
 
 Cummings said he was not aware of any attempt by officers to use nonlethal force before shooting McDole. He also would not say whether he thought the situation should have been handled differently. 
 
 "Only our thorough investigation will reveal that," he said. 
 
 The shooting is being investigated by the department's criminal investigation and professional standards units, as well as the Delaware Department of Justice's Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust, which will determine whether any officers will be charged. The state agency investigates all police shootings that result in injury or death. 
 
 Richard Smith, head of the Delaware chapter of the NAACP, called for a special prosecutor to investigate the shooting, and "to not have cops investigating cops." 
 
 McDole's uncle, Eugene Smith, was among a crowd of a couple dozen people who gathered Thursday at the scene of the shooting. Smith said he was with his nephew about 15 minutes before shooting and he didn't see a gun. 
 
 "He had a book bag, but I never seen a gun," he said. "It was an execution. That's what it was. I don't care if he was black, white, whatever." 
 
 McDole was black. The race of the four officers who fired was not released. All four are on administrative duty. One of the officers has been on the force for 15 or more years, and the others had been there for about five years, the police chief said. 
 
 Mayor Dennis Williams announced earlier this year that officers would have body cameras by the end of 2015. 
 
 At the news conference, he said: "We want answers just like you want answers." 
 
 McDole was shot near an auto parts store in an area that includes a mix of shops and row houses. 
 
 A bouquet of flowers was placed at the scene and some gray powder was on the concrete, apparently to soak up bloodstains. At least seven small yellow chalk circles were on the pavement across from where McDole was shot, presumably outlining where the shell casings from officers' guns landed. 
 
 Late Thursday, about 100 people gathered outside of Phyllis McDole's home for a candlelight vigil and expressed their frustrations about the shooting. 
 
 Williams and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell stopped by and expressed their condolences. 
 
 A .40-caliber shell casing was found in the grass about 15 feet from where McDole was shot. Police said a .38-caliber gun was found by McDole's side after he was shot. 
 
 Smith said McDole had gotten out of jail about a year ago and was living in a nursing home. 
 
 McDole has an arrest record that dates back to 2005 and includes convictions for drug possession and disorderly conduct. He was also arrested for carrying a concealed deadly weapon and resisting arrest, but those charges were dropped. In November, McDole was found to have violated his probation. 
 
 McDole was paralyzed when he was shot in the back in 2005 by a friend he had been walking around a neighborhood with, smoking marijuana, according to court documents. 
 
 McDole initially told police that his friend Randal Matoo shot him, but later testified that he didn't know who shot him. 
 
 At Matoo's bench trial, the judge said he didn't know what happened, "but if either one of you expect me to believe that this wasn't associated with some other wrongdoing, think again," according to court documents. "There's a horrible penalty that both of you, the victim, Mr. McDole, and you the defendant, Mr. Matoo, are going to pay for whatever was behind this." 
 
 Matoo was convicted of first-degree assault and possession of a firearm during a felony. 
 
 ___ 
 
 (The story corrects a previous version to show that the last name of the man in the wheelchair was McDole, not McDowell.)
– Angry relatives are calling it an "execution." Jeremy McDole, a 28-year-old man paralyzed from the waist down, was shot dead in his wheelchair on a street in Wilmington, Del., the News Journal reports. Police say they received a 911 call Wednesday afternoon about a man who had shot himself with a handgun and McDole was still armed when they arrived, reports CNN. The city's chief of police say McDole was ordered to put his hands up and when he "began to remove the weapon from his waist, the officers engaged him" and fired the fatal shots. The four officers involved have been placed on leave while the shooting is investigated. Video of the encounter posted on YouTube shows officers shouting at McDole to drop his weapon, although the .38 handgun police say they found isn't visible in the video. Relatives, including McDole's mother, say he never had a weapon, the News Journal reports. "This was murder," she told reporters. "He shot my son like he was roadkill." An uncle calls it an "execution" and says he was with McDole 15 minutes earlier and didn't see a gun. McDole—who was paralyzed after being shot in the back in 2005—was black; police have not disclosed the race of the four officers involved. Last night, Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell visited a vigil outside the home of McDole's mother and promised that the family would get answers, the AP reports.