Tony Divers' siblings are grieving and confused after their 36-year-old brother was shot and killed by police close to midnight one Friday night in September.

They say Divers was unarmed and that he was in "mental distress," in "crisis" that night.

My brother was a human being. A human being who deserved better than to be shot down, unarmed, in the middle of the street. - Leslie-Ann Wilson, Tony Divers' sister

"This tragic event has left our family broken, and asking 'why?'" wrote his sister, Leslie-Ann Wilson, on a fundraising page asking for financial support for funeral costs, legal help and to launch a private investigation into his death.

"My brother was a human being. A human being who deserved better than to be shot down, unarmed, in the middle of the street on that chilly September night," she said.

'Removal of wearing and using guns'

"My family is never going to stop fighting for justice for our brother, Tony, and all of the other victims who have suffered at the hands of the [Hamilton Police Service]," Wilson wrote.

Divers' family posted a collage of family photos and memorials to their brother. (GoFundMe) Her sister, Yvonne Alexander, and brother, Edward Divers, plan to address the police services board at its next meeting to call for more de-escalation training for police.

Yvonne would like to see "that all front-line officers wear a lapel camera when going on all calls," according to her speaker request form.

Edward, meanwhile, wants the board to take more dramatic action: he plans to call for the "removal of wearing and using guns from the Hamilton police," according to his speaker form.

"Comparing other countries' (police) not wearing or using guns and how this is positive and effective for society as a whole! [Zero] tolerance for guns!" he wrote.

'Little faith that justice will prevail'

The province's Special Investigations Unit is investigating Divers' death, which happened several blocks away from an assault that cops were called about.

Divers' family says they have "little faith that justice will prevail" in the SIU decision.

The SIU said that when the call came in about the assault on Catharine Street North, there were reports the man who hit the woman had a gun. Neither police nor the SIU said where those "reports" originated.

Neither local police nor the SIU have said if the man who was shot was found to have a gun. A bystander witness said the man he saw did not appear to have a gun.

Divers' history

While police aren't talking about what might have gone in to the fatal interaction, details from interviews and court records suggest Divers was known to police and had a history of violence and resistance to being arrested.

Tony Divers was struggling with mental health issues when he was fatally shot by police.

But he also had a history with police and the justice system, a long list of charges going back to the late 1990s.

Divers pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received the equivalent of a 10-year sentence for his role in a 2002 fatal stabbing of a 26-year-old man, according to a Hamilton Spectator article from 2005.

Though he was ordered never to have weapons or ammunition after that, Divers was charged with a string of gun-related possession charges in 2011 and was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

An attorney who represented Divers since 2011, Jaime Stephenson, said that the gun had been "found in the house he was residing in" and that Divers "took responsibility as he didn't want anyone else in the house to be found guilty."

kelly.bennett@cbc.ca | @kellyrbennett