On Wednesday, three Las Cruces police officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation involving the shooting death of an East Las Cruces man.

Almost 24 hours after the shooting, friends and family of Michael Molina, 38, gathered at the home on Starview to grieve together.

On Tuesday evening, Las Cruces police officials said officers responded to a disorderly conduct call involving several people at 5925 Starview. When police arrived at the scene , they said , Molina was in the front yard of the house with a knife. Police said Molina refused to put the knife down after commands by police to drop it, that's came toward the officers with the weapon , and officers shot him.

Although police will not confirm where Molina was shot and how many shots were fired, some neighbors KFOX talked to said they heard several shots.

Several family members said they were very angry. They said their loved one did have a knife in his hand but he never went toward the officers.

Lt. Randy Lara with the police department said whether the officers did the right thing or not won't be determined until the investigation is complete.

" Whichever use of force option they choose, the point would be is that an objectively reasonable choice," said Lara.

While the Las Cruces Police Department's internal affairs office has opened a case, a team of law enforcement officers and the district attorney's office is doing their own investigating.

"That team will investigate whether the shooting of the individual was necessary," said District Attorney Susana Martinez.

And because the investigation is ongoing, questions like if the officers were equipped with Taser guns will go unanswered for a while.

"We're still trying to determine exactly what happened out there, how many shots were fired, where the subject was hit and so forth," said Lara.

The officers involved are Officer Mark Dominguez, 30, who has been with the force for four years and responded by himself and Officer Horacio Rivera, 28, an officer of three years , who responded along with 23-year-old Officer David Cordova, an officer-in-training who has been in the department for three months.