SBI: Man killed by Sanford officer had gun

SBI agents recovered the weapon from inside the home at 621 Magnolia St. where Travis Faison was killed. Authorities didn't say whether Faison fired the gun or was even pointing it at the officer.

"I got one black male shot. He's got a gun in his hand still," an officer told dispatchers, according to a recording of police communications in the incident that was released Thursday.

Faison, 26, was wanted on charges of attempted murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury in a Dec. 5 shooting in Sanford, according to the SBI, which is investigating Faison's shooting.

Faison's past include multiple arrests for various crimes, including resisting a police officer and possession of a firearm by a felon. His convictions include common law robbery in Halifax County in 2007 and possession of drug paraphernalia in Lee County in 2013.

Sanford police found Faison outside 621 Magnolia St. Wednesday afternoon and tried to arrest him. When he ran inside the house, Officer Brently William Brown followed him, the SBI said.

Faison was shot in the home and pronounced dead at the scene.

Relatives disputed the SBI account of the incident, saying Faison was on the phone with a cousin inside the house when police began banging on the door.

"My brother said he heard them say, 'Hey, we got a warrant for your arrest,'" Tyrice Bell, Faison's cousin, said Thursday morning. "They went into the back, and that’s where we see all the blood and all the crime things, but they didn’t leave us no kind of nothing."

"No, no, no," Cedric Womack, another cousin of Faison, said when told what the SBI preliminary report said.

Some neighbors were present when the police pulled up and knew what happened, Womack said.

Brown, 23, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an SBI review of the shooting.

While Faison's mother grieved quietly inside the home Thursday, family members demanded answers about the shooting.

"Why did it happen?" asked Shatara Farrow, another cousin. "What is the reason for it? Cops just shot him for no reason. We don’t understand why at all.”

"The mother needs to see her child. She's trying to figure out if this is her son. She's not been able to see her son," said William Johnson, another cousin.

Late Wednesday, some family members set fire to furniture in the front yard of 621 Magnolia St. Police and fire crews returned to the home and extinguished the fire.

Family members said Thursday they burned the items because they believe police may have bugged them.

Later in the night, however, family members set fire to a wooded area across the street from Faison's home. Police and fire crews returned, and the crowd dispersed.

"People are angry, very angry," Womack said.