Lakeland Police shot and killed a 71-year-old man Thursday night after a standoff in which they say he pointed a shotgun at officers.

• Lakeland Police: Man, 71, armed with shotgun shot, killed by officers
• Police ID man as Jerry Roach
• Officers said they have been to home as many as 8 times this year

There were no officers injured.

According to police, neighbors said Jerry Roach was yelling racial slurs at neighbors and pointing a shotgun in the air outside his home in the 700 block of West Crescent Drive around 9 p.m. Thursday.

"The neighbors called 911. They didn’t know if he was going to come back out or run into their house with a shotgun after he fired the one round. They were scared to death," said Sgt. Gary Gross, with Lakeland Police.

Negotiators talked with Roach for about an hour before he came back out of the home, still armed with the shotgun.

"During the last phone conversation with one of our negotiators, he said he was coming out and officers would have to kill him," said Lakeland Police Chief Larry Giddens. "He made statements that he was bringing his shotgun with him even though numerous requests for him to exit the residence unarmed had been made by our negotiators."

Police said Roach pointed the weapon at them. At least six officers fired at Roach. He was rushed to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where he died.

Jerry Roach is seen in this photo provided by a family member.

His nieces, Brenda Walker and Linda Hill believe the standoff shouldn't have escalated to his death. They said Roach called his brother, saying he was scared because his house was surrounded by police.

They said Roach's brother came to the scene and provided negotiators Roach’s number but police wouldn’t let the brother talk to Roach or go inside the house.

"If he would've got to talk to his brother, this wouldn't have happened. He would've turned himself in," said Linda Hill. "The police cars were, I mean, all the way around, the helicopters and everything. Just for him. Seventy-one years old. He wasn’t going to shoot anybody at all. If anything, it would've been himself."

Hill said Roach lost his wife a few years ago. When asked why Roach came out of the house with a shotgun when police asked him not to, the nieces said they believe he may have given up, after seeing no one was coming to help him.

Roach was well known to police. Department officials said they have responded to Roach's home at least seven times in the past year for various disturbances.

People living near his home said he's been an ongoing problem, calling them racial slurs often. But Roach's nieces said the neighbors aren't telling the whole story. They said there has been an ongoing feud for a while.

"Both parties called each other names. Um, the guy that had punched him in the face threw something at his truck one day too," said Linda Hill.

Lakeland Police said the six officers who shot Roach are on paid administrative leave, pending an investigation into the shooting by Lakeland Police and the State Attorney's Office.