A man killed by police earlier this month was shot about 24 times, Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Jay Glass said this morning. On Aug. 6, officers firing automatic weapons killed Benjamin Griggs, a mentally ill Vietnam War veteran, on his front porch in West End after a standoff that lasted about two hours. Glass said investigators can't be sure of the exact number of bullets that hit Griggs because some of the wounds intersected. A friend of the Griggs family, Rev. Abraham Woods Jr., said today the number of times he was shot was "complete overkill." "They just blasted him away. One or two well-placed shots would have immobilized him or killed him and they know that," Woods said. Even though one shot could have killed Griggs, Woods said the number of shots is still outrageous. "The difference ought to be obvious to everybody. If you shot a dog that many times people would be up in arms about that," he said.