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Disturbing footage has emerged of a man in a wheelchair being shot dead by police officers in Delaware after he refused to raise his hands.

Police said they were called to the scene in Wilmington to reports of an armed man who had shot himself.

Mobile phone footage published online shows a number of officers surrounding the disabled man, later identified as 28-year-old Jeremy McDole.

The officers can be heard repeatedly shouting "put your hands up!" with their guns raised.

Mr McDole appears to try and lift himself out of his wheelchair before around six or seven gunshots are fired by police.

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Mr McDole then slumps out of the wheelchair and onto the road.

He died at the scene.

Police said an investigation into the shooting is ongoing, but furious family members described the incident as an "execution".

The man's uncle, Eugene Smith, said he had been with his nephew a short time before the shooting and denied he had a weapon.

A cousin Alexis Anthony also questioned police tactics.

"They couldn't [use a Taser on] him?" she asked a reporter from Delaware Online.

"Instead, they killed him instead. They could have knocked him out of his wheelchair."

She added police had told her Mr McDole was trying to commit suicide.

His family said Mr McDole was paralyzed as a result of being shot in the back when he was 18.