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(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa Attorney General's Office says the two officers involved in a fatal shooing in February were legally justified.
On February 19th,officers responded to reports saying a patient had stabbed a security guard at the Crisis Observation Center near Drake University. When police arrived, they found the suspect, Hunter Thomas Munoz with a knife in his hands. Officers opened fire after Munoz refused to follow commands to drop the knife and ran toward police. Munoz was taken to an area hospital but later died of his injuries.
Further investigation into the suspect found that Munoz's family had brought him to the Crisis Observation Center for a mental health evaluation. Investigators found he had been treated at various times over the past several years and had recently stopped taking his medication.
On the day of the deadly shooting, a security guard at the facility asked Munoz to empty his pockets so he could be searched for weapons. Instead, Munoz pulled a knife from his jacket pocket and stabbed the guard in the shoulder and chest. The guard attempted unsuccessfully to use his taser on Munoz, which was not effective. Other security guards tried to use pepper spray on Munoz, who managed get away and linger in a hallway for a short time before leaving the facility and encountering police.
Following an investigation into the shooting from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa Attorney General's Office concluded the two DMPD officers involved in the shooting, Officer David Chase and Officer James Gano, were justified in using deadly force.