Civil rights leaders, family and friends gathered at a church in Bloomfield, Connecticut, on Thursday afternoon for the funeral service of Steven “Stevie” Jones, a 55-year-old Black man who was shot nine times by a Hartford police officer on Feb. 27 after his family reported he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Jones, a father of two, died of his injuries on March 3.

Rev. Al Sharpton, the famed Baptist minister and founder of the National Action Network, delivered a eulogy for Jones and called for “justice” ahead of the church service, along with family attorney Ben Crump and Jones’ sister, Audrey Jones.

“We are going stand with Audrey because this case represents mental health victims of all races, all over this country,” Sharpton said.

According to a preliminary report released by the Connecticut Office of Inspector General, police responded to the scene after “a family member of Jones, who was later identified as Audrey Jones, called 911 to seek assistance because Jones was having an acute mental health crisis.” The caller indicated that Jones had “cut himself and had a knife in his hand,” the report states.

“If I would have known that they were going to kill my brother, I would not have ever called 911 for an ambulance, and I just ask that you pray for me and my family during these trying times,” Audrey Jones said ahead of the funeral service on Thursday.

The inspector general’s office released four body camera videos of the incident on March 6 from the four officers who responded to the scene, showing the minutes leading up to the fatal shooting and the moment Jones was fatally shot by a Hartford officer, identified by the police department as Joseph Magnano. The officer fired nine times at Jones, who was walking around with a knife in the street and repeatedly ignoring officers’ orders to “drop a knife,” according to the OIG.

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“Stevie had a mental health crisis. He needed a helping hand from the Hartford Police Department, but instead he got nine bullet holes in his body,” Crump said during the funeral service on Thursday. “That is a shame before God. The status of your mental health and the color of your skin should not equal the death sentence.”

At the moment he was shot, Jones appeared to be walking slowly towards one of the officers, still holding the knife, while the other three officers surrounded him, the video reviewed by ABC News shows. In the footage, Jones appeared to be walking at a steady, slow pace, holding the knife in his hand with the blade pointed down towards the ground when he was shot by Officer Magnano.

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Hartford Police Union President James Rutkauski told ABC News on March 9 that Magnano cannot comment on the ongoing investigation and said that the union “fully supports” him in this case.

“The facts are clear and undisputed: a suicidal individual armed with a large knife ignored repeated commands to drop the weapon, failed to respond to less than lethal force, and deliberately advanced on the Officer in a manner that created an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury,” Rutkauski said, in part. “This was a 100% justified use of deadly force, necessary, reasonable, and in full compliance with federal law.”

A spokesperson for the Hartford Police Department told ABC News that Magnano was “placed on Administrative Leave with Pay, which is customary for Officer Involved Shootings,” adding that the incident is “being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General, which is also customary for OIS.”

The inspector general’s office released a preliminary report on March 6 as the investigation into Jones’ death continues. The report included a copy of the Medical Examiner’s notice to police that Jones’ cause of death was ruled a homicide.

Asked by ABC News about the status of the investigation on Thursday, the inspector general’s office did not provide additional comment.