Chelsea Stewart watched on Jan. 6 as police agencies from across Etowah County converged outside her parent’s home on a short residential street in Gadsden.

Officers closed off the block and changed from patrol uniforms into army pants, flak jackets and helmets, she said. Some slung long guns over their shoulders and parked a tank outside the small, detached garage situated next to the family home where her older brother, 28-year-old Cody Stewart, lived.

“We heard them say, ‘Cody put the gun down,’” Chelsea Stewart said.

Then she heard six gunshots. From her vantage point, she had a clear view of the scene that played out a block away, across an empty lot.

“I could see the red flame coming off their guns,” Chelsea Stewart said.

Gadsden Police shot and killed Cody Stewart that night, according to a statement. Now family members are asking why officers wouldn’t allow them to help with negotiations that could have led to a different outcome. Amy Dale, Cody Stewart’s aunt, said she didn’t think her nephew had to die.

“He would have listened to me,” Dale said. “He would have felt safe. If he would have known that his family was there, it would not have ended the way it did. They knew we were all up on Tuscaloosa Road. Why didn’t they utilize us?”

The standoff began after police received a report of a kidnapping of a woman who had a prior relationship with Cody Stewart. Officers tracked her cell phone to Cody’s garage apartment, said his mother, Jennifer Stewart. The police quickly ushered Jennifer Stewart, her husband Ernest Stewart and 15-year-old daughter out of their home and surrounded the adjacent garage.

Jennifer Stewart said she offered to jimmy open the lock to the garage – the key had been lost years ago. She wanted to talk to her son and warned police he had struggled with mental illness she said. Police told her they couldn’t allow her near the building.

“If we could have just talked to him over an intercom, we could have talked him out of there,” Jennifer Stewart said. “If I could have opened that door, I believe it could have been over.”

After the shooting, police found the kidnapping victim alive. The woman has posted on Facebook that she was abducted, threatened and pistol whipped before police stormed the building.

Officers also recovered a gun, according to documents left at the home. Family members said Cody took it from his parents’ house. Law enforcement officials from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Gadsden Police Department said they could not comment on the circumstances that led to the shooting.

Cody Stewart’s family members said he struggled with mental illness and drug use in the past, but never hurt or threatened friends or relatives. A search of state court records shows two arrests for drug possession and a handful of traffic offenses. Jennifer Stewart said he spent about four months in the local jail on one of the charges.

As a boy, Cody Stewart was musical and creative, his mom said. He played guitar and joined the marching band in middle and high school. “He loved music,” Stewart said. “He could hear it.”

He started experimenting with drugs in high school and grappled with depression, she said. “We would go places as a family and he would be trying to have fun,” Jennifer Stewart said. “But you could tell he was just lost.”

After his arrests and incarceration, Jennifer Stewart said her son began to fear the police. He left one job on the spot when police responded to a bomb threat. She said he panicked and thought they had come to arrest him, so he walked out the back door.

He grew increasingly isolated. For the past two years, Cody Stewart spent most of his time inside the converted garage that she and her husband had fixed up and furnished. He became uncomfortable in large groups and preferred to keep to himself or hang out with close friends and family.

At one point he was hospitalized for a week and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, his mom said. Sometimes he would threaten suicide. But they said he never expressed much interest in guns and were shocked to hear he had one in his room. Her father was a police officer in Gadsden and she said her children grew up with a respect for law enforcement.

Jennifer Stewart said she spoke to Cody earlier in the day and everything seemed fine. She was in bed when police banged on her door at almost 11 a.m. She doesn’t know what happened with the abduction or how the standoff with police devolved into a deadly shooting. The family hoped to get answers from the coroner but learned on Jan. 9 the autopsy report could take up to six weeks.

In the meantime, police officials have asked the family to tally the cost of the property damage. The tank carved a gash into the side of a car and mangled the garage door. An explosive attached to the lock left blast marks on the side door. Blood stains mark the bed sheets and box fan.

Their losses run much deeper than that. Chelsea Stewart said she still thinks about missed opportunities to connect with her brother.

“The day this happened, I came over here and I was going to come out and knock on his door,” Chelsea Stewart said. “But I was in such a hurry I just didn’t.”

Jennifer Stewart has been out and out of the hospital with heart issues aggravated by grief and stress. She said answers from police could help give her some peace.

“I just want to know what happened,” she said. “Was he pointing the gun at police? Was he pointing it at himself? I don’t know. Even if he just finally snapped and did something wrong, I just want to know.”