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Milton Hall was shot 30-plus times by six Saginaw, Mich., police officers after he allegedly refused repeated requests to stop wielding a knife, CNN reports.

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The July 1 standoff between Hall and the officers, as well as the fatal shots, was captured on cellphone video.

In the video, which was purchased by CNN and exclusively aired on their network, Hall is seen arguing with police officers. At one point, the man who captured the scenes, says Hall crouched in a “Karate stance.”

CNN has more on how the rest of the scene plays out:

Police said Hall had just had a run-in with a convenience store clerk. On the video, he tells police, “My name is Milton Hall, I just called 911. My name is Milton, and I’m p—ed off.” When an officer tells him to put the knife down, he responds, “I ain’t putting s–t down.” He appears unimpressed by a police dog, telling officers, “Let him go. Let the motherf—ing dog go.”

When Hall turned to the left of the frame where an officer had moved out of view, he was then shot at least 30-plus times, according to CNN. Local news outlets report as many as 46 shots were fired.

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Saginaw Police Chief Gerald Cliff told CNN that Hall was “known to be an assaultive person” with “a long history” of contacts with law enforcement, “not only with police from our department but with the county.”

But the dead man’s mother, Jewel Hall, who described the shooting as a “firing squad,” said that her son had once trained to be a civil rights advocate and that he was not a violent person. She said he had been jailed for minor offenses but nothing major.

She also told CNN that her son suffered from mental illness and that he was known by local police. This makes the mourning mother ask the question that many in the community have about the 49-year-old man’s horrific death: Why?

“I’m stunned that six human beings would stand in front of one human being and fire 46 shots,” Jewel Hall said. “I just don’t understand that. It’s a lot of pain in that because it only takes one shot, so the question is why?”

She questioned why none of the cameras in the police cars at the scene recorded the shooting — “none of them work.”

“So that’s the question I have and the community has is, what’s taking so long?” she said. “Why is not being transparent?”

A group of pastors and community members held a vigil for Hall at the location where he was fatally shot, according to ABC25 Today.

“There are bullet holes in the dumpster. It really brings you to the scene but we want to come and pray,” says Robert Davis, pastor of the Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Saginaw.

Another supporter at the scene asked whether Hall could have been arrested without being shot to death.

“Could he have been talked down? Was it immenent? Was he a threat immediately to the officers and or himself?” asks former Saginaw mayor, Gary Loster. “Some officials have indicated the community has not been outraged. I can tell you they’re very outraged to the point where there is no trust in the government or the police department,” says Loster.

“Let us know something that’s all we want just tell us something,” says Davis.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into the shooting.

6 Cops Shoot 30-Plus Shots At Knife-Wielding, ‘Mentally Ill’ Man  was originally published on newsone.com