A gun has been recovered at the scene where a man died in a police-involved shooting early Tuesday, but family members of the deceased man said he didn't have a gun.
"We want more answers," said a relative of Cleman Sweptson, 34.
The shooting happened shortly after 3 a.m. at the intersection of Sheridan and Stanton roads SE, near Suitland Parkway.
According to a police official, a patrol officer saw a man acting erratically and appearing to be under the influence of drugs in the middle of Sheridan Road and told him to get on the sidewalk, but the man pulled out a gun and fired at the officer.
The officer then fired back, killing him, police said.
Sweptson's family has a different story, News4's Pat Collins reports.
They say Sweptson had been sitting on his mother's front steps when an officer came by and told him to move. He began walking toward his sister's house, but as he turned the corner toward the pedestrian bridge over Suitland Parkway that goes to his sister's house in Barry Farm, the officer approached him, they said.
Sweptson's family said he was a father of two and not the type of person who carried a gun.
"They're saying that there was a gun on the scene, and we know that he does not carry a gun," a relative said. "He's not in that type of life at all."
ANC Commissioner Natalie Williams said that security cameras in the area may have captured video of the incident.
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"This area is full of cameras, and so it's going to be very key for the family, for the investigators, and everybody else who wants answers," Williams said. "This community wants answers, so we would like to know what that camera actually shows."
Several neighbors heard shots being fired.
"We were sitting in the apartment looking at TV like we normally do," a resident of a nearby building told News4's Megan McGrath. "We heard four or five shots, and one of the neighbors came to the apartment building and knocked on the door and told us, 'We heard a lot of shots.'"
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