An eyewitness to Sunday’s deadly police shooting says the two Toronto officers who arrived on scene to find Andrew Loku wielding a hammer shouted demands at him to drop the weapon, before one officer fatally shot him soon after arriving on scene.

The entire event — starting from when the officers located Loku on the third floor of his Gilbert Ave. apartment building, to when Loku lay on the ground dying — occurred in the span of a minute or two, according to Robin Hicks, Loku’s neighbour, in her first interview since witnessing the shooting.

“I’m not talking five minutes, or two minutes, I’m talking seconds here. We didn’t get a word in, me or Andrew,” she said.

Hicks says she was with Loku in the third floor hallway when two officers climbed up the stairs, shouting at Loku to drop the weapon. She claims the only thing police said to Loku before one officer fired was the order to drop the weapon.

Loku, a 45-year-old father of five from Sudan, was shot dead early Sunday inside his apartment complex near Eglinton Ave. W. and Caledonia Ave. The building’s units are leased by the Canadian Mental Health Association to provide affordable housing and services for people suffering from mental illness.

Hicks’ account of the shooting could not be verified by authorities. The Special Investigations Unit, the civilian agency which probes death or serious injury involving police, is now investigating. Spokesperson Monica Hudon said she could not release additional information about the shooting Tuesday.

Toronto police say they cannot answer questions related to the incident or respond to Hicks’ account of events while the SIU investigates — including whether the officers were notified before entering the building that it housed people with mental health challenges.

Neither the SIU or Toronto Police will release the names of the officers involved.

Grieving friends say Loku was a kind, hardworking man who lived alone while trying to bring his wife and five kids, who range in age from early to late teens, to Canada from Sudan.

In April, Loku went to visit his family before returning for his graduation ceremony from George Brown College’s construction program in June, according to John Cosamas, Loku’s best friend.

After years working odd jobs, including a cleaning gig at a nearby grocery store, Loku was hoping a better job would allow him to send more money back home to support his family.

“He was always talking about his kids,” said Sabina Santurlino, a close friend who, as Loku’s emergency contact in Toronto, was first to learn of his death from authorities Sunday.

“He talked about bringing them here, so they had it in their mind that one day they would be with their dad.”

Loku’s half-sister, who lives in Saskatchewan, has been in contact with his wife and children. The family is confused and devastated, said Santurlino.

So too are members of the tight-knit Sudanese community, several dozen of whom from across Canada were expected to participate in a scheduled conference call Tuesday night to discuss how to move forward.

“The community’s so outraged right now, people just want answers,” said Salwa Bol, one of Loku’s friends. “It’s just touching people in ways you cannot even imagine.”

Hicks said the incident began early Sunday with a loud tenant on the third floor who lives directly above Loku’s second-floor unit. Loku had recently been complaining to Hicks about the noise coming from the unit.

Hicks, who lives on the third floor, says she was awoken by banging coming from down the hall. When she left her apartment she could see that Loku had come upstairs from his unit and was yelling at the tenants above him. He had entered their apartment and was holding a hammer.

“When I opened the door and realized it was Andrew, I was in shock because Andrew is the quietest person in this whole building,” Hicks said. “He just said, ‘Please, please. What did I do wrong to you people, I need sleep.’”

Hicks could hear that one of the women in the unit was calling police. She began coaxing him out of their apartment.

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“I just grabbed his arm and I said, ‘Andrew, come on’... and he looked at me, and he didn’t look like Andrew, you know, in his eyes.”

Hicks led Loku out of the noisy apartment and into the third floor hallway, where Loku continued to be agitated, at one point banging the hammer on metal railing of the stairwell between the second and third floor, Hicks said.

She claims Loku was beginning to calm down when police arrived on scene, responding to a call about unknown trouble and a man with a hammer.

A female officer arrived first, Hicks said, and stood alone at the top of the third floor landing before a male officer arrived. Both were yelling for Loku to drop the weapon, Hicks said. She was also urging Loku to put the hammer down.

“At that point he turned around and looked at the officer,” Hicks said. “They told him to drop it one more time but he didn’t, and that’s when the male officer shot.”

“Andrew died right in front of me. There was no reason for it.”

Loku’s friends and other tenants in the building say they did not know Loku to be violent or angry. Santurlino said she did not know the details of Loku’s mental health history, but said his behaviour right before his death sounded out of character.

Hicks said before police arrived, Loku was obviously upset, but had not actually harmed the residents inside the noisy apartment despite having the opportunity. However, one resident of that unit who did not want to be identified said she felt very threatened when Loku arrived with a hammer.

The shooting has renewed concerns about Toronto police interactions with people experiencing mental health challenges. Multiple fatal shootings of emotionally disturbed people wielding weapons have led to inquests and reports detailing how Toronto officers could avoid deadly force.

Among repeated recommendations is the need for officers to defuse a tense situation through de-escalation techniques, which include offering someone in emotional distress help instead of issuing what’s known as the police challenge — an officer yelling an order to “drop your weapon.”

Following the fatal police shooting of teenager Sammy Yatim on a streetcar in 2013, then-police chief Bill Blair commissioned a report on Toronto police interactions with emotionally disturbed people. The July 2014 report, written by retired Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, advocated for training that emphasizes de-escalation techniques and communication in place of force.

One month before Iacobucci’s report was released, Blair issued a routine order stating that whenever feasible and consistent with officer and public safety, de-escalation attempts must be made before resorting to force.

Loku’s death has also shaken the residents of the building, a small group of whom held a meeting with staff from the Canadian Mental Health Association Tuesday to hold a moment of silence and plan a future fundraiser to help Loku’s family.

CMHA has arranged for group and individual counseling starting this week.

“We’re committed to helping people, whether that’s next week, next month or next year,” CMHA Toronto executive director Steve Lurie said at the meeting.