Latino Man Blasted by Shelbyville Police at Cookout: Victim's relatives deny he shot at police

 
Two sons and the daughter of a Shelbyville man shot dead by a policeman's bullet on Saturday remembered their father yesterday as a happy man who helped people. Fermin had been cooking fajitas and making tacos crisp on a grill because classmates from school, years ago in Mexico, came here from their home in Dalton, Ga., to see Fermin, his family, the land he bought and the house he owned, relatives said. "Man, we were having so much fun before they came," said William. "When you're happy, you're like a song," he said, and he explained, like others at the house yesterday, "A ballad had started playing and he was walking and he shot some shots to the ground, and that's when we saw the officers. "At no time did they yell or say anything. When he turned around, he went down. I saw him go down," Williams said in contrast with Shelbyville Police Chief Austin Swing's report Saturday night that "[Estrada] turned toward the officers and fired in their direction." William countered: "They say my father shot back at them, but how could he? He had shot all the bullets to the ground before he realized they were behind him. When he turned around, it was square in the face. "The way they came onto our property, they should have come on the driveway. They came through the woods. They came across the back fence. The man who shot the rifle, he looked like he was hunting," William said.moremore