OSCEOLA — Questions remain over the death of a local man who was shot and killed by a police officer who felt his life was in danger.

The shooting happened late Monday night on Lincoln Way in Osceola.

Authorities say Mishawaka Police Detective Jeremy Tyler was off duty and on his way home when he says he noticed 43-year-old Eugene Nusbaum trying to cut a catalytic converter from a minivan in a used car lot.

Now Nusbaum's family members are trying to figure out what happened for themselves. Nusbaum's girlfriend is questioning what she's heard so far and says it just doesn't make sense.

“We just want to know what happened, how it happened, why it happened, that's all we want to know," Kimberly Cole told WSBT News. "I just, I don't get it … why it all had to come down to this."

To Cole, the man described by police and the media as a thief is not her boyfriend of nine years.

Eugene Nusbaum — Gene to friends and family — did have a criminal record: 12 arrests since 1995 most recently in 2005 for theft.

But Cole says he'd changed.

“When I first got with him, yes, he had some hard times, and throughout the years I got him where he should be,” she explained. “He got off the drugs, he kept a job, started working, started doing what he was supposed to do. I mean there was no reason for him to go down there to try to crawl under a little minivan.”

Through the course of their investigation, authorities believe Nusbaum was trying to cut a catalytic converter from a minivan in a used car lot Monday night when Mishawaka Police Detective Jeremy Tyler, just off duty, saw him and turned around.

Authorities say he tried to stop Nusbaum from leaving in his truck by wedging himself between the door and the frame. But Nusbaum kept going, according to investigators, dragging the officer who then pulled his gun and fired.

Nusbaum died of a gunshot wound to the chest. His truck traveled about a quarter mile down the road before hitting a tree head-on and flipping upside down.

Cole says her boyfriend didn't need a catalytic converter and certainly didn't need the money he would've gotten selling it as scrap.

“He just got a bonus check, I've got money of his put back, we both work we've got money,” she said.

Nusbaum's ex-wife and mother of his two children is just as confused.

“Because over the last five years or so he had really cleaned up his act,” she said. “I'm not saying it's not possible; I'm just saying it doesn't make sense.”

An employee from that used car dealership confirmed part of the catalytic converter on that minivan had been taken off.

But there are still unanswered questions: Why didn't Eugene Nusbaum stop when police asked him to? And why specifically did this officer feel his life was in jeopardy?

Metro Homicide continues to investigate. It will forward its report on to the prosecutor's office to determine whether the shooting was justified.

Some have asked for an independent, outside agency to look into this matter. But WSBT News learned that County Metro Homicide is considered an outside agency.

Tyler has been with the Mishawaka Police Department for six years and was promoted to detective over the summer. He has no disciplinary action against him. He’s been placed on administrative leave with pay.