(Photo by Tony Hisgett)

A man was fatally shot in the midst of an apparent eviction dispute in Southeast late last month, and now two D.C. police officers have been suspended after allegedly declining to help the family asking for protection.

A group of five people showed up to the 6th District Station on July 30 to make a police report regarding an eviction, according to the police report provided by the Metropolitan Police Department. MPD officers interviewed all five people, who said they were trying to get a person to leave one of their homes. When they asked this person to leave, he allegedly lifted up his shirt to reveal an unknown object—presumably a gun—and said “I’m the reason why the murder rate is up in D.C.,” and “If I’m not living here, nobody is.”He then apparently left the home.

The Washington Post reports that the officers at the station denied the groups’ request to be escorted back to their home. Later that same day, they responded to a call at the home in Southeast, where “MPD observed an unidentified individual laying on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound to the head,” according to the incident report from that day. That person was Andre Hakim Young, a 47-year-old sound engineer, according to the Post, who had gone to the house to try to resolve a dispute and help one person retrieve their belongings from inside the house. He was transported to Prince George’s Hospital and pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m.

MPD eventually arrested Mark Tee Price, 23, and charged him with first-degree murder while armed. MPD says that Price was the one who made the initial threats, but they’re looking for another person who allegedly also fired a gun at the residence, according to the Post.

MPD confirmed to DCist that a detective and an officer have been placed on ‘non-contact status’ while their superiors investigate their decision not to assist the group of people.

“My brother was going to help someone in need, and it cost him his life,” Young’s younger sibling, Warren Lewis, told the Post. “I’m angry. [Police] didn’t follow protocol. . . . Why would police send people back to a scene of violence? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”