The family of a man shot dead by four Oakland police officers as he carried a toy gun filed a federal lawsuit against the city Monday, saying the killing violated his constitutional rights and was the result of poor police training.

Police said Richard Perkins Jr., 39, pointed a realistic-looking pellet gun at the officers the evening of Nov. 15 in East Oakland. Officers fired about a dozen rounds, killing him.

His relatives, however, after watching surveillance-camera footage of the incident, said Perkins had complied with police commands and had warned the officers he was carrying the toy pistol but never raised it.

Perkins was a motorcycle enthusiast and father of two who was working on a neighbor’s house remodeling before his death. He was shot after stopping to admire motorcycles that police had impounded while breaking up an illegal sideshow on 90th Avenue near Bancroft Avenue, the family said.

Police referred questions about the case to the city attorney’s office. A representative there declined to comment, saying lawyers hadn’t yet been served with the lawsuit.

The confrontation with the four officers — three rookies and one sergeant who had been on the force for seven years — happened after Perkins brandished the Desert Eagle replica gun, police said.

Perkins was struck by several bullets, some of them in the head and back, according to an Alameda County coroner’s autopsy report.

Perkins’ mother and siblings said the police account didn’t match what they saw when they sat down with homicide investigators and watched footage taken from a gas station surveillance camera.

The family said that when Officers Jonathan Cairo, Joshua Barnard and Allahno Hughes and Sgt. Joseph Turner approached Perkins, he held one arm in the air and the other arm lifted up his shirt to show the toy gun tucked into his waistband to forewarn them it was fake.

Regina Perkins Bradley, 46, said it would have made no sense for her brother to point a toy gun at officers.

“That’s just like saying you would want to commit suicide,” she said. “That wasn’t my brother. He loved life.”

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland on behalf Perkins’ mother, Ada Perkins-Henderson, 66, and 20-year-old son, Richard Perkins III. It claims the officers were inadequately trained, were negligent and used excessive force, and asks for unspecified compensation.

Outside the Oakland federal courthouse Monday, Perkins’ family said police had been slow to tell them what happened the night he was killed. His mother recalled standing alongside the crime scene tape, not far from her house, and praying as investigators collected evidence, not knowing it was her son who had been shot. She found out two days later, she said.

“I know they have to go home at night,” she said about police concerns for their safety. “But they need to be careful when they pull the trigger.”

The incident was one of seven officer-involved shootings in Oakland last year, five of them fatal.

Police and district attorney investigations into the Perkins shooting continue. The Police Department said all four officers involved in the incident have returned to work.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov