The whānau of the Christchurch-born man who was shot dead in the US by police after calling for help are demanding the officers involved be charged.
Christian Glass, 22, who has been described as a "young man of many talents with kindness that knew no bounds" was tasered and shot five times by US police in June.
On the night of June 11, Glass found himself stuck on a small pile of rocks on the side of the road in Silver Plume, Clear Creek County in Colorado.
Glass called 911 and during the call disclosed he had weapons inside the vehicle but said that once officers arrive he would throw the weapons out the window.
Glass' family lawyers Qusair Mohamedbhai and Siddhartha Rathod have said the 22-year-old was an amateur geologist and the weapons Glass had were rock knives.
Following a series of events where police tried to negotiate with Glass to get out of the vehicle - he was pronounced dead after police tasered and shot him five times.
In a press conference Glass' parents, Simon and Sally, said "it was dark, and he was really worried".
"He trusted [the] police to come and help him. Instead, they attacked and killed him."
Sally said her son's reluctance to get out of the vehicle was because he "was just too scared to get out of his car".
Mohamedbhai and Rathod told the media following Glass' 911 call, police "escalated and proactively initiated force" that would lead to the 22-year-old's death.
"The act of simply calling 911 for help cannot be a death sentence."
Glass' parents, who relocated from Aotearoa to Boulder, Colorado when Christian was 10 years old, said he had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and could have possibly been experiencing a mental health crisis.
An autopsy revealed that traces of alcohol, cannabis and amphetamines were found in his bloodstream, the Daily Mail reported. His parents said the amphetamines would have been his ADHD medication.
While speaking to the media, Sally held a heart-shaped rock found inside her son's car while highlighting the systemic policing issue in the US.
"[Police] escalate at every opportunity and it looks like spoiling for a fight. No other industrialised nation comes even close to the amount of police killings that happen in this country."
And now Glass' family and their lawyers are calling on the officers who killed Glass to be held accountable.
"These officers, including the one who killed Christian, are still in uniform and have paid no price for their conduct. Our country cannot continue to tolerate this level of extreme violence by law enforcement," said the lawyers.
Since Glass' death - a deputy has been placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Clear Creek District Attorney's office is also investigating.
"This office is required to issue a report or to present the case to a grand jury to further investigate or decide if indictments should issue," District Attorney Hannah McCollum said in a statement.
"I will release my decision on the action this office will take as soon as the review process and a complete and thorough investigation is completed."
Glass' parents spoke about the kind of person their son was.
"He saw beauty in nature," Sally said. "He took long drives up into the mountain where he liked to draw and paint."
