The family of Luis Gongora, the 45-year-old homeless man shot and killed by SFPD in April of this year, followed through this past Friday on its promise to file a federal civil rights lawsuit. The Chronicle reports that family members allege SFPD officers used unnecessary and unlawful force by shooting Gongora while he was either on the ground or falling to it — contradicting official claims that he lunged at officers with a knife.

Gongora was shot 6 times on April 7 on Shotwell Street. Surveillance video of police arriving on scene emerged after the incident, but Gongora was out of frame. At least eight witnesses have disputed SFPD's account of the shooting, with one alleging that Gongora had been using his knife on a tree.

Shortly after the incident, then police chief Greg Suhr said officers were called to the scene by a homeless outreach team that observed a man swinging a kitchen knife.

“Mr. Gongora was not running or lunging at the officers when he was shot to death,” KQED News reports civil rights attorney Adante Pointer explained at a Friday press conference announcing the suit. “Given the angle of the gunshot wound to his head, and you combine that with the video, it gives you a real clear indication that he was not only not standing when he took that shot, but he was below the angle of the gun. So Mr. Góngora was actually on the ground or going to it when he sustained that fatal injury, and that is clearly excessive and unnecessary.”

While Gongora's death remains under official investigation, on Friday the San Francisco city attorney’s office issued a statement saying lethal force was “necessary and legally justified.”

According to a medical examiner's report, Gongora was shot in the back left shoulder, the right upper back, his chest, twice in his right forearm, and in his forehead.

“Most people [in encampments] that I’ve talked to have this impression that what happened to Luis Gongora sends this message that if you’re out on the street in a tent, you’re not a human being — you’re a throwaway person,” Supervisor David Campos, whose district includes the block where Gongora was shot, told Mission Local.

Previously: Autopsy For Luis Gongora Reveals He Was Shot Six Times, Had Meth In His System
Family Of Homeless Man Killed By SFPD Move To File Suit Against City