A Metro Police officer remains on administrative leave after shooting a suspect to death early Friday.

The family of the dead man believes he could have lived, if only he gotten help sooner.

Members of the family who were there say the ambulance was too slow in arriving to save him. Now they are working with Louisville’s Justice Resource Center hoping for answers.

Cindy Sharer was there moments after her friend James White was shot. And she waited for help -- Cindy says far too long.

“I wanna know, the main thing is, why an ambulance was not called?” she asks. “Because I know, he would be all right now, I know in my heart he would.”

She says it took at least 45 minutes for one to arrive. When it did, she believes it was too late.

“I look down where his hands were - he took his fingers and waved by to me.”

White died Friday morning after being shot by Officer Brent Jones. Police say it came after white lunged at the officer with a knife. White was initially pulled over for erratic driving.

LMPD says only Louisville MetroSafe could comment on how long the ambulance took, and if it was excessive, why so. Matt Kamer with the Mayor's office says that it took 7 1/2 minutes from the time the ambulance was dispatched to the time it arrived. 

“I watched police just stood there, standing over him, talking waiting for an ambulance,” Sharer says. “Police came, detectives came, there was no ambulance.”

The family also describe the knife White held as a butter knife, but say three officers were around him -- and “if you can bring in murders, abusers, that kind of thing alive, why did he have to die over a traffic violations?”

Officer Jones is on administrative leave pending an investigation. James White's family and friends will file a formal complaint against Jones and Metro Police Monday and the Justice Resource Center hopes to set up a meeting with Police Chief Robert White.

White's funeral is Tuesday.

Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.