Relative disputes account of fatal police shooting

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — A relative of a 31-year-old man fatally shot by a Fort Wayne police officer disputes that the man had a gun and ignored the officer’s orders.

Police Chief Rusty York say an officer responding to reports of gunshots south of the city’s downtown saw Antron Pearson with a gun in a bar’s parking lot and he didn’t follow orders to drop the weapon. York says it appears the officer acted appropriately early Saturday.

But Kevin Boughton tells The Journal Gazette that he’s confident that Pearson didn’t have a gun. Boughton says the officer approached his second cousin, yelled “freeze” then immediately fired several shots.

Pearson had convictions for battery, theft, intimidation, resisting arrest and drug possession.

Cynthia Pearson says her husband didn’t carry or own a gun.