Independent Autopsy: Man Killed by Police Was Shot 10 Times

FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2020 file photo, protesters take to the street and block traffic at the intersection of Willow Street and Evangeline Thruway after a vigil held Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020, in Lafayette, La., for 31-year-old Trayford Pellerin, who was shot and killed by Lafayette police officers while armed with a knife the night before. In the span of 48 hours, two Black men in U.S. cities hundreds of miles apart were shot by police in episodes that set off a national conversation about the need for officers to open fire on people walking away from them. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP, File)

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A private autopsy found a man killed by Louisiana police last month had been shot 10 times, according to an attorney representing his family.

Trayford Pellerin, who police said had a knife and was trying to enter a convenience store, was killed by officers on Aug. 21 in Lafayette.

The Daily Advertiser reports that Ronald Haley, an attorney for Pellerin’s family, said in a news release that Pellerin was killed in a “hail of gunfire.” The independent autopsy commissioned for the family shows the “extreme brutality and anguish that he suffered in his last moments,” he said.

Lafayette officers followed Pellerin, 31, on foot as he left a convenience store where he had created a disturbance with a knife, Louisiana State Police said. Stun guns failed to stop him, and the officers shot Pellerin as he tried to enter another convenience store, still with the knife, according to a news release.

The shooting death has prompted protests in Lafayette, a consolidated city and parish of about 244,400 in Louisiana’s Cajun country.

The newspaper reported that the autopsy, authorized by Pellerin’s mother, shows Pellerin was directly hit by police gunfire 10 times according to Haley. The autopsy didn’t find evidence that Pellerin was tased by officers who tried to use tasers on Pellerin, Haley said.

Ben Crump, another attorney representing the family, has said family members believe Pellerin may have been having a mental health crisis.