Police shot and killed a man at a home in Homestead over the weekend.
Family members told local media that 33-year-old Leandro Ledea Chong was unarmed and was struggling with mental health issues.
Homestead Police Captain Fernando Morales said officers were dispatched early Saturday morning to a residence following reports of gunfire, WPLG-TV reported.
Police arrived and encountered Chong, who they claimed threw objects at them and placed his hands inside a fanny pack. They then requested assistance from the Miami-Dade Police Department’s SWAT team.
Morales did not say what directly caused officers to fire their weapons at Chong or whether a firearm was recovered after the shooting.
Karen Jam, who said she and Chong were recently separated, told the Miami Herald that her husband suffered from mental health issues and drug addiction.
“He was ill, and he didn’t have guns. It was an injustice,” Jam told the Herald.
“Nobody deserves to die like that,” she said. “We have evidence they covered with bullets the house, the room, the bathroom, the patio, and him completely without any need. There are other methods they could have used."
“I understand that the police want to protect their lives but they were warned that he was a sick person. There are other things they could have done instead of killing him. There is pepper spray, Tasers, immobilizers," she added.
Jam and other Chong family members created a GoFundMe pageto help raise money for funeral costs and decry the police action.
They said Chong's mother called authorities to have them take Chong to rehab, noting he had agreed to do so, "but then the cops showed up all pointing weapons at him," family members wrote in the GoFundMe page.
The Homestead Police Department requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the officer-involved shooting.
FDLE spokesperson Gretl Plessinger told the Herald that FDLE will be spending several days gathering evidence and conducting interviews.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
