Mentally ill Black man shot to death by police in his own apartment

Kawaski Trawick, 32, was immediately pronounced dead at the hospital after being shot in his apartment by New York police, according to The City.

Trawick, a bi-sexual man called the police on April 14th, after being locked out of his apartment. He feared the food he was cooking would catch on fire. Trawick was also known to have a mental illness and was living in an apartment complex for those struggling with homelessness.

"Friends say that he suffered from unspecified mental health problems and they believe that he was having an 'episode' that evening," a report from LGBTQ Nation said.

Adding, "Two 911 calls were made. According to The City‘s chronology, firefighters showed up at his building in the Bronx at 10:53 pm, broke open his door, verified that there was no fire, and left at 10:59 p.m."

After this, another set of officers responded to a call about Trawick who was allegedly disrupting his neighbors.

Police claim that Trawick did not comply or drop his "weapons" which consisted of a bread knife and a broom handle. Moments later they shot him in the chest.

“I don’t think they really had to kill my son,” his father Ricky Trawick told The City. “I don’t think they had to shoot him and shoot him dead like that.”

"One of the 911 calls was made by a security guard, who told 911 that Trawick was mentally unstable that day, but officers were not warned that they were responding to an 'emotionally disturbed person,'" the report said.