The top prosecutor in Virginia's Prince William County has ruled that five police officers were justified in fatally shooting an armed 79-year-old man.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the ruling came from county Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth.
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She said that the officers' actions were justified and reasonable during the Dec. 10 incident in the Dumfries area. It left a man named Kurtis Kay Frevert dead.
“In this incident, the danger posed by the decedent was real,” Ashworth said in a statement. “Each of the officers expressed that they believed either they, individually, were in danger of being killed or that the other officers present were in danger of being shot or killed.”
Authorities said that police had gotten a call from Frevert’s wife. She said he was armed and threatening to commit suicide. Officers arrived and her husband left with a weapon and headed to a nearby wooded area, police said.
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Police said her returned to the front porch “still armed with the weapon." Authorities said he was told to drop the weapon, and “within seconds” Frevert “pointed the weapon towards officers."
Authorities said the officers fired “almost simultaneously in response to the threat of the firearm being pointed toward them.”
