Ever since Eugene Ellison was shot dead two years ago by an off-duty police officer in his home in Little Rock, Arkansas, his family have tried to convince the authorities to take action.
The unarmed 67-year-old African American was killed by Donna Lesher, who entered his home with another off-duty officer after spotting that his door was open. She was cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal inquiry.
But the Guardian has learned of new testimony from another police officer who witnessed the shooting, which has cast doubt on Lesher's account and raised important questions over the original police inquiry and the county prosecutor's subsequent decision to rule the shooting justified.
In his testimony to lawyers for Ellison's sons, Vincent Lucio, one of four officers present when Ellison was shot, said he did not believe Ellison posed a deadly threat, according to the documents seen by the Guardian.
Lucio maintains that all of the officers, including Lesher, were outside Ellison's apartment when she fired inside his apartment at him in apparent violation of the Little Rock police department's own rules on the use of deadly force.
LRPD general order 303 forbids officers from firing inside a building "unless the officer or someone else is drawing deadly fire and the suspect can be identified and is clearly visible".
Lucio also said that the four officers could have walked away from the scene, but instead Lesher opened fire, without issuing any warning to Ellison that she had a gun and would shoot.
