A family is suing the New York Police Department for more than $32 million after a bodybuilder was shot by police after they asked him to smash through a door for them last September.

Rafael Laureano, 51, was killed by a round fired by police who had asked him to break through the door of a friend's home because she was being assaulted by an ex-boyfriend, according to the suit filed with the Brooklyn Supreme Court.

The suit claims the woman, Katarzyna Russo, was hunkered with her two children in the bathroom of her Midwood apartment, while the ex, Francisco Carvajal, 47, was hacking through the locked door with two knives.

When Laureano burst through the door to the apartment, Carvajal came at him and the officers present, who opened fire, discharging a total of 18 bullets, nine of which struck Carvajal, who was killed.

One of the bullets fatally struck Laureano, a father of four, in the neck, the lawsuit alleges.

But Laureano's son, 26-year-old Rafael Jr, says he was told at first that his father had been stabbed to death.

"When I got to scene I asked three cops what happened to my father, no one wanted to tell me anything," he told The New York Daily News.

“I thought he was strong enough to survive (getting stabbed)," another of Laureano's sons, Jonathan Sanabria, 27, said.

"But Rafael said, ‘no he died.’ I couldn’t believe it."

It was not until a few days later that medical examiners determined Laureano's death to have been caused by the NYPD.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers breached protocol by asking Laureano to smash the door in, rather than using a battering ram or calling for emergency assistance.

But the police contend that Laureano ran into the apartment after police forced the door open.

“No amount of money can replace the father of four children...the family is seeking justice,” lawyer Abe George, who filed the suit on behalf of the family, told the New York Daily News.

“The NYPD and the city has yet to provide the Laureano family with the truth of what led to (their father's) death,” he said.