Nicole Thomas can still hear the crack of the gunshots, echoing in her memory.

"I didn't take my eyes off of him," she said. "There were five gunshots. I watched every single one of them hit. One, two, three, four, five. I will never forget them. And I can still see them hit him."

Those gunshots were fired by Niagara Regional Police officers at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, wounding 56-year-old Fred Penner after, witnesses said, police repeatedly warned him to drop the knife he was holding.

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit reported that Penner died in hospital at 12:27 p.m. Wednesday.

Nicole and her husband Larry said the incident began when they noticed a man standing across the road, staring at their Rykert Street home.

They said the man then approached their home and entered the backyard through a gate.

Larry followed him.

"I realized I was back there with a man who (appeared) mentally distraught and had a big bread knife in his hand," Larry said, who picked up wooden two-by-six board to defend himself if he needed to.

Larry said he warned the man they'd call the police, to which the man responded: "Good, I hope they bring a bullet."

"I was terrified," Nicole said, adding she feared the man had her husband "cornered with a knife."

After Penner left their property, Larry said he and his wife continued watching him, hoping he'd return to his room at the boarding house at 71 Rykert St.

"We were keeping an eye on him. I tried to get him to drop the knife and go home and settle down, but that was to no avail," Larry said.

Instead, he said, Penner wandered along area sidewalks and driveways, still holding the knife.

Penner's landlord, Enes Begic, said he, too, tried to defuse the situation before police arrived.

"I tried to help him so many times," Begic said.

Concerned about the safety of people in the neighbourhood, Nicole flagged down a passing police cruiser.

She said the officer confronted the man alone, ordering him repeatedly to drop the knife.

"There were several times when she said, 'Put down the knife.' She said it a couple of dozen times," Larry recalled.

As the confrontation continued in a driveway next door to the rooming house where Penner lived alone, Nicole said she heard no sirens or lights indicating more police were on the way. At the time, it appeared that her husband was the only backup the lone officer had.

"I then called 911 to ask where the hell they were, as my husband and this lady cop needed help now," Nicole said.

Larry said he retreated to a safe distance to watch as other police arrived. The shouts got louder as police continued to order Penner to drop the knife.

Begic also recalled hearing repeated warnings from police.

"They said drop it. He didn't want to drop it. They said drop it or they're going to shoot," Begic said.

He said he heard Penner respond, telling police he didn't care if they shoot him.

Larry said Penner paused for a moment, then took a step towards the officers who were by then only a few feet away, while lifting the knife as though he intended to lunge at them.

Larry said police had no choice.

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"They had to react," he said.

Immediately after Penner was shot, Larry said, police crowded around the man to provide medical care until Niagara Emergency Medical Services paramedics arrived.

Melissa Lane-Gamble, whose husband was Penner's nephew, said the incident has left his family in shock.

"It is a tragedy that the actions taken were fatal," she wrote in a message to The St. Catharines Standard.

Bouquets of tulips have been left at the edge of the driveway where Penner was shot.

Lane-Gamble said Penner struggled with his mental health, "and had apparently visited the hospital earlier in the day."

Begic said he had tried to get Penner the help he needed. He said he called the police a week before the incident, after Penner appeared extremely agitated and paranoid.

Begic said Penner, at the time, was saying: "They want to kill me." He said he tried to reassure Penner that he was safe and called police to take him to hospital.

"The next day, he was back home," Begic said.

Asked about Penner's recent visits to the hospital, Niagara Health spokesman Steven Gallagher said the incident is part of an ongoing investigation by the SIU, and "any inquiries should be directed to them."

The SIU did not respond to requests for additional information.

For Larry, the incident reinforces the need for better mental health care in the community.

"We're all a victim of it, especially men because we don't really deal with mental issues really well. There isn't a lot of help out there for men," he said.

"I wish there was another way it could have been handled, but I couldn't see it. I wish there was a better way. I keep thinking, could I have done anything differently?"

Allan.Benner@niagaradailies.com

905-225-1629 | @abenner1

- Police shoot man in west St. Catharines