A Denver woman says her mentally ill son might still be alive if police had given him more time to surrender Sunday night before storming into a home where he had barricaded himself.

“I told them my son was not mentally stable. He said, ‘I’ll come out. Just give me time,’ ” said Gema Martinez, the mother of 28-year-old Miguel Angel Martinez, who was shot to death Sunday in an exchange of gunfire with SWAT officers. “They have no compassion whatsoever. I have anger, and I hurt.”

Raquel Lopez, Denver police spokeswoman, said she could not comment about Gema Martinez’s statements because there is an ongoing investigation into the shooting.

“We can’t discuss who shot first,” Lopez said.

Two SWAT officers fatally shot Miguel Martinez at about 11 p.m. Sunday as they entered the small home where he was staying behind his grandfather’s house at 305 S. Alcott St. Entering the home when they did was a tactical decision after a 5½-hour standoff, police said this week.

The Denver coroner’s office indicated that Martinez died of multiple gunshot wounds after the gun battle with police.

Late Sunday afternoon, Gema Martinez went to where her son was staying to calm him because he was very upset. He said he was going to fire his gun and that when he did police would come and shoot him to death.

“He told me, ‘Sorry, Mommy. I have to be in peace. Let them come and finish it.’ He just wanted to end it,” Gema Martinez said.

Miguel Martinez had a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for robbery. He was mostly arrested for misdemeanor crimes, which included several assault and police-obstruction charges. The Colorado Department of Corrections had a warrant for his arrest after he walked away from a community corrections facility.

Gema Martinez said she had been trying for years to get help for her son, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder since he was a teenager.

“He needed mental health care, not prison,” she said.

She said her son had hallucinations of the devil and was paranoid that the police were out to get him after numerous run-ins with police, including an incident two years ago when police fired six gunshots at him when he was unarmed.

She said he would have nightmares that the police were after him and wake up sweating. He was tormented, she said.

When she arrived Sunday at the house, he told her that he was tired of running from police, she said.

Miguel Martinez fired about six shots into the air, she said, and as he was lowering his gun he accidently shot himself in the leg. When she told him she was going to call an ambulance, he begged her not to, she said.

“He wanted to stop running from them. He was tired of watching his back,” she said. “He didn’t want to go back to jail. He said the cops were going to kill him anyway.”

Ricardo Martinez, Miguel Martinez’s grandfather, said a neighbor called police about the gunshots. Miguel went into the small home behind his grandfather’s house and began pushing a refrigerator and washing machine in front of the door.

Over several hours, a police negotiator tried to coax him into surrendering, Gema Martinez said. She talked to her son on the phone in hopes of persuading him into surrendering. At one point, he agreed to come out and started trying to move the refrigerator away from the door.

“I could hear him breathing hard while he was pushing. He stopped repeatedly because he was in pain from the gunshot wound,” Gema Martinez said. “He yelled, ‘Tell them to stop pounding on the door.’ He was begging for more time. He was tired. He was exhausted.”

More time passed. Gema Martinez said after she heard numerous gunshots, she was terrified for her son. She repeatedly asked police what happened, she said.

Two hours after the shots were fired, she was finally told her son was dead, she said.

“They did exactly what he told me they would do,” she said. “I had a heart attack. I had to go to the hospital.”

She was admitted overnight at Swedish Medical Center for treatment.

The two SWAT officers who were involved in the gun battle have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. Police involved in fatal shootings are routinely placed on leave.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or @kirkmitchell or denverpost.com/coldcases