The parents of a mentally disabled man shot to death by city police said his death was unnecessary because he was unarmed and surrendered —a story that sharply contradicts police accounts.

Bryant Worrell, 21, of the unit block of South Robinson Street in Southeast Baltimore, had been assaulted by five men who broke into his house and dragged him out of bed about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, his family said.

The men were yelling that they wanted guns and intended to kill Worrell, said his father, who declined to give his name.

Worrell’s father said he fought the men off his son while his wife, Nancy Worrell, 51, called police.

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Police said that officers arrested one suspect and told Worrell to leave the house, but that an officer found a gun while searching Worrell and struggled with him when he refused to drop it. Police said the officer shot Worrell in the torso before he ran away and collapsed behind a house in the 3100 block of East Lombard Street.

“He had a weapon and he refused to relinquish the weapon,” said police spokesman Sterling Clifford.

“The officer reached a point where he had no choice but to use his gun.”

But Worrell’s family insists that he never had a gun and that police shot him in the back as he ran.

“How is he going to have a gun, if I brought his pants outside and took everything out of his pockets?” said his girlfriend, Sharda Fenwick, 17, who brought Worrell pants because he was wearing only boxers and a T-shirt.

Clifford said that the allegations “are just not true” and that a .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene. He said police tried to avoid shooting.

Worrell’s family alleges that he was still alive when he collapsed and that police “murdered” him.

“He had laid down in the yard and surrendered,” Worrell’s father said.

“They finished him off in the back of this yard.”

Resident Michael James, 46, said he heard three gunshots behind his house and his granddaughter saw Worrell’s arm move.

“That just did not happen,” Clifford said.

Court records show Worrell was on probation for a 2005 theft and had convictions for drug possession in 2007 and burglary in 2006. He was charged but not convicted of armed robbery in 2005.

Police said Tyvonte Worrell and Michael Holt, both 18, were arrested in connection with the initial assault. Tyvonte Worrell was charged with marijuana possession; his relationship — if any — to Bryant Worrell is unknown. Holt was charged with second-degree assault.

Worrell graduated from Briscoe High School in Baltimore and planned to go to Baltimore City Community College to be a mechanic, his family said.

Worrell’s death marked the city’s 14th officer-involved shooting this year; 10 were fatal.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com