The family the man armed with a knife who was shot and killed by police in Crown Heights this past Monday says the NYPD could have responded differently since he was mentally ill. 

Attorney Sanford Rubenstein and the family of 26-year-old Eudes Pierre are asking if the force shown by the NYPD was justified and if Pierre was an imminent threat to the officers involved. His family says they are broken. 

Police say the incident happened around 4 a.m. Monday when officers responded to a call for a man armed with a knife and gun near 1090 Eastern Parkway. 

Investigators say the 911 calls about a man with a knife near the Utica Avenue subway station were in fact made by the 26-year-old. 

Police tell News 12 that Pierre did have a knife and was given multiple warnings to drop the weapon and to show his hands when he walked down the Utica Avenue subway station. 

That’s when police say they used Tasers to try to stop him, which they say had no effect. Police say he then ran back into the street, still armed with the knife, when he charged at officers. 

That is when police say officers shot him about 10 times. 

“We want the video to be out now… it’s important to have transparency so the public really knows what happens. To rely on a statement by the NYPD regarding suicide by cop ... that’s just not adequate. We need to have the video released and we want the attorney general and have confidence in the attorney general will do an intense complete investigation,” said Rubenstein. 

While the attorney general’s investigation is underway, police say they found a suicide note at the family home of Pierre. 

They also say their records indicate responses to two attempted suicides by Pierre prior to Monday’s incident.