Eddie Irizarry’s family say they knew from the start that police lied. Now, they want accountability.

Underneath a weeping willow, the family of Eddie Irizarry gathered to grieve Wednesday afternoon, and to remember the 27-year-old man shot to death by Philadelphia police two days earlier, a man they described as quiet and helpful — and who loved little more than working on cars and dirt bikes.

The day after Irizarry was killed on East Willard Street in Kensington, police officials changed their initial narrative that he had stepped out of his gold Toyota Corolla and lunged at them with a knife. Instead, police said, Irizarry had neither left the car, nor lunged at them.

It was a correction to a story the family say they always knew was wrong, and, in their minds, was an egregious lie.

Standing in the heat of the afternoon on a slim stretch of Orkney Street, Eddie Irizarry, 49, the dead man’s father and namesake, said he was always wary of shootings in Philadelphia. But he never thought that one of his children would be a victim, or that the shooter would be a police officer.

“I was always worried something like this could happen to me. You see it all the time on television,” he told The Inquirer in Spanish. “I had hoped my kids would bury me, not that I bury my kids.”

About seven years ago, Irizarry moved to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico, following his father, who had arrived about two years before.

The son struggled with mental health issues, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to his father and sister.

Growing up with his father, who works as an auto mechanic, Irizarry found a passion for working on cars and dirt bikes, and would jump at the opportunity to fix any mechanical issue his friends and family ran into, said his sister, Maria Irizarry, 21.

He was a “protector,” his sister said, who’d walk miles to pick up groceries for his family without complaint.

“He was a good guy,” she said. “Always helping people. Always looking for a way to help fix something for you.”

The family is now finalizing funeral plans and has set up a GoFundMe to help defray the costs. They have not yet seen Eddie’s body or been told when they will be able to do so.

About 12:30 p.m. Monday, two uniformed officers with the 24th Police District said they saw Irizarry “driving erratically” near B Street and Erie Avenue in North Philadelphia, according to Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, a department spokesperson.

Reilly initially said that when the officers attempted to pull him over, Irizarry fled in his gold Toyota Corolla. The officers followed him south until he stopped on East Willard Street, Reilly first said, and as officers approached the stopped car, Irizarry stepped out with a knife.

The officers gave “multiple commands” for him to drop the weapon, according to that first account. Instead, he “lunged” at the officers, Reilly said, and one of the officers shot him multiple times.

Police released a revised narrative Tuesday night that said Irizarry was seated in his car when the officer shot him.

In the new statement, police said officers observed Irizarry “driving erratically” but did not attempt to pull him over, and instead followed him as he drove south. Irizarry then drove the wrong way onto the 100 block of East Willard Street, and parked his car.

Then, the officers got out of their patrol car and approached Irizarry’s car, according to the revised narrative. As one officer approached the driver’s side, the second attempted to open the passenger side door. One officer told the other that “the male had a weapon.”

As Irizarry turned toward the officer on the driver’s side, that officer shot Irizarry multiple times. The statement said that “two knives were observed inside the vehicle.”

The officers carried Irizarry to their police cruiser and rushed him to Temple University Hospital, where he died soon after, at 12:48 p.m.

Video posted on Instagram of the moments immediately after the shooting appeared to show the officers pulling Irizarry out of the driver’s side of the Toyota, and there appeared to be a bullet hole in the car’s windshield.

The two knives found in the car were a kitchen-style knife and a folded serrated blade, police said Wednesday.

Law enforcement sources on Thursday afternoon identified the officer that shot and killed Irizarry as Mark Dial, a five-year veteran of the department.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw declined to say whether Irizarry was holding a knife when he was shot, and would not say whether Dial ordered Irizarry to drop a weapon before he shot him. Outlaw also declined to say the length of time between when Dial got out of the car and when he opened fire.

The family wants answers. They want to see his body. They want to see footage from police cameras that would show the last moments of the man they affectionately called Junito. They wonder why police would shoot him — they said doctors told them he was shot six times.

Irizarry would carry knives as tools, rather than weapons, to strip wires during his work, said his grandfather Nelson Garcia.

Irizarry’s father, who was a law enforcement officer in Puerto Rico, said that some of the places where his son was shot — including the face — were shots taken to kill.

They wonder why police didn’t just use their tasers.

“Something must have happened in that officer’s mind,” Maria Irizarry said in Spanish. “He was either angry already or had mental problems or he woke up deciding to kill someone.”

On Wednesday evening, on the narrow block where Irizarry was killed, dozens of family and friends gathered to pay their last respects.

Carrying bunches of white balloons and a plywood altar built by Irizarry’s grandfather, his family arrived to remember, to pray, and to renew their vow to get justice .

“They murdered my nephew here, cold blood,” his aunt Zoraida Garcia said to the crowd. ”And I want answers”

The family plans to push for criminal charges and prison time for the officer who killed Irizarry, his aunt said.

One balloon read in Spanish: “Junito, we will give you justice.” Another read simply: “Love you, cuz.”

Shortly before 7 p.m., Irizarry’s friends and family shouted in unison, “Justice for Junito” and released the balloons, which floated slowly, up into the blue sky.