TROY — A video taken in the aftermath of Tuesday's police shooting of a 22-year-old city man shows him writhing on the ground and begging for help as officers try to keep him on the pavement.

"Why'd you all shoot me? Why'd you all shoot me?" Dahmeek McDonald can be heard asking police repeatedly.

"I'm about to die," McDonald says at another point. "They shot me in the head."

McDonald, who is shown handcuffed and held on his stomach for much of the video, can been seen looking around and trying to move. Blood covers his face. Bystanders implore the police to get him help.

"Freaky, Freaky, just keep talking to me," a woman calls to him as her cellphone camera records the scene. Later, she screams, "Get him to the hospital."

McDonald, who was wanted for an alleged parole violation, was shot twice by a Troy police officer during a 6:40 p.m. traffic stop on Eighth Street. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover.

In a Wednesday-morning press conference, Troy Police Chief John Tedesco said he could not say whether McDonald was armed with a weapon.

"That portion of the investigation is ongoing," Tedesco told reporters. Later Wednesday, police searched the scene and the car McDonald was traveling in for a weapon but did not announce any findings.

No police or city cameras captured the shooting, Tedesco said. He urged members of the public to come forward with any eyewitness accounts or video that could provide details.

At noon Wednesday, dozens of protesters marched from the scene of the shooting to Troy's City Hall, escorted by police. When they arrived, protesters chanted for Tedesco's removal and listened to McDonald's uncle, James "Messiah" Cooper, speak.

"Before we die on our knees, we will fight on our feet," Co0per said, just before he and other family members were shepherded inside to meet with Mayor Patrick Madden. The group reemerged about an hour later.

"We have to give them time," Cooper told an angry crowd, adding he and his family felt confident the mayor would hold the officer "accountable if need be."

Cooper also called for the city to reopen community centers and pools where young people can safely gather, and for residents of color to apply for police exams.

"We need policing," Cooper said. "We can't have chaos. But we have to have proper policing."

Tedesco said his department and Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove will investigate the shooting. The state Attorney General's office is currently investigating Abelove's controversial handling of a case in which a Troy police officer was cleared in the April 2016 shooting death of a drunk-driving suspect.

"All officers are not bad, but everyone needs to be accountable for their actions," said McDonald's great-uncle Alphonso Brown.

Brown said he was a block away Tuesday night when saw a police vehicle turn onto Eighth Street; moments later, he heard five gunshots. Brown said he was disturbed by how quickly the incident unfolded and how little police would have known before drawing their weapons.

"The only thing you have him on record for is the parole (violation)," Brown said of McDonald. "That don't constitute you running up and shooting that man."

McDonald was shot in the shoulder and a bullet grazed his head, Tedesco said. The chief initially told reporters Tuesday that the man had been shot in the torso, but he clarified where he was hit during Wednesday's news conference.

Tedesco also briefly mentioned initial news reports that indicated the McDonald had died. One of those reports appeared on the Times Union website for about a half hour Tuesday night before being corrected.

Police initiated the traffic stop after being notified by state parole officers that a car linked to McDonald was in their vicinity. McDonald was wanted for cutting off an ankle monitor several months ago, the chief said. The man was imprisoned last year after pleading guilty to narcotics possession.

Brittany Hughes, who recorded the video taken immediately after the shooting, said she was talking to McDonald through his parked car window on Eighth Street on Tuesday night when she noticed two police vehicles round the corner.

McDonald put the car in drive and turned the wheel as the squad cars parked diagonally in front and behind him, Hughes recalled.

"I literally stepped two steps back and pow, pow, pow," she said. Hughes said she saw the officer draw his weapon before getting out of the squad car, "so you have all the intentions of coming to shoot somebody."

McDonald was inside the car when he was shot, police said. At least one other person was inside the car but not injured.

Hughes' grandfather, Ed Williams, said he and his wife were inside their home on Eighth Avenue when she heard someone outside yell, "Drop the weapon, drop the weapon," before a gun was fired.

Williams said he ran outside after the shots to find McDonald bleeding on the ground and screaming. Police were trying to get him into handcuffs "rough-like, like he wasn't even shot," Williams said.

Tedesco said Officer Jarrod Iler, a five-year veteran of the force, fired his weapon. His partner, Officer Martin Furciniti, and the two other city officers who responded as backup did not shoot. None have been interviewed yet, the chief said. They are on administrative leave and will be evaluated after three days to determine if they can come back to work, he said. Tedesco said Iler had an exemplary record.

Hughes said that, after McDonald was shot, he got out of the car with his hands on his head and his face covered with blood. The vehicle, still in drive, swerved away from police and hit a fence, she said.

Police have not said why Iler fired his weapon. Tedesco said a number of questions remain unanswered about the case; he would not discuss whether or not McDonald was armed.

This is the third shooting involving Troy police in the past two years.

In August 2015, Officers Joshua Comitale and Chad Klein exchanged gunfire with Thaddeus Faison on 112th Street in Lansingburgh. The officers were seriously wounded. Faison died as a result of his injuries. A grand jury cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.

In April 2016, Edson Thevenin of Watervliet was fatally shot near the Collar City Bridge by Sgt. Randall French after allegedly fleeing a traffic stop. Five days after the death, a grand jury declined to indict French. The state Attorney General's office is investigating that shooting to determine if the case was properly handled by Abelove.

Tedesco said Wednesday that he does not expect the attorney general's office to probe Tuesday's shooting, given that McDonald survived. A 2015 executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo empowered the attorney general's office to investigate the deaths of unarmed civilians due to police actions, but the order does not cover non-fatal injuries.

Hughes said episodes like Tuesday's gunfire make residents hesitant to call the police when they need help.

"At the end of the day, nobody trusts the police," Hughes said. "If me and my boyfriend get into an altercation and I call to ask you to get him out of the house, how do I know you won't shoot him?"