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Family disputes police account in killing of South End man

Hope Coleman grieved for her 31-year-old son, Terrence Coleman, who was fatally shot by Boston police early Sunday. Pat Greenhouse / Globe Staff

Hope Coleman called for an ambulance early Sunday morning to come to her South End apartment and take her mentally ill adult son to a hospital. He had been sitting on the stoop for most of the past two days, she said, and she worried he would catch pneumonia.

A short while later, her 31-year-old son, Terrence, lay dead, shot by police who say he turned on them and EMTs with a knife.

“We have to meet deadly force with deadly force,” said Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans.

Hope Coleman strongly disputes that account. She said her son was unarmed and had not tried to hurt anyone when police burst through the front door and shot him.

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“It was uncalled for!” she said, calling the police’s statements flat-out “lies.”

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