Valorie Mottern, age 4, sits on her front steps beside a shrine to her dad’s cousin. He died Tuesday in Eureka as the result of an officer-involved shooting. [Photo provided by Nichole and Josh Mottern.]

Thomas McClain died after being shot by Eureka Police Department officers in his front yard. Did he have a gun? Was the shooting justified? Family says no. Law enforcement and one neighbor say otherwise.

Nichole Mottern still can’t bring herself to believe that Thomas McClain, her husband’s cousin, was fatally shot by Eureka Police Department officers early Wednesday, September 17. She speaks of McClain in the present tense.

“Tommy lives with me and Josh and my kids,” she explained. “He came up here to get away from the Fresno lifestyle. He became our family.”

On Tuesday, shehad taken the two men out for her husband’s birthday. She explained during an interview Thursday that Josh Mottern, her husband and McClain’s cousin, was inebriated so he went upstairs to bed in their two-story townhouse. Her mother, who had been babysitting, was on the living room couch.

The home of Thomas McClain. He, his cousin, his cousin’s wife and two children shared the space in one unit. Another residence, which is currently empty, is attached.

Mottern said she and McClain were outside chatting in the front of the house after midnight (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning) when she ran upstairs to check on her husband. From there she looked out the window and noticed a police officer behind her home “looking around.”

“All of a sudden he took off towards the front