The 17th Judicial District Attorney declined to file any criminal charges against Thornton police officers for an incident in March in which they shot a man in the foot during a standoff. The man shot at officers and later killed himself, according to a decision letter from District Attorney Brian Mason.

The investigation didn’t conclusively determine which of two officers – identified as Brendan Wise and Eric Cos-Y-Leon – fired the round that hit the man, identified as Dean Saiki. They thought they had missed until an autopsy showed a gunshot wound to Saiki’s foot, according to Mason’s letter. That discovery prompted the Thornton Police Department to ask the 17th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team to investigate what they presumed to be a shooting by an officer.

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Thornton Police Officer Aja Williams responded to a report by two of Saiki’s family members of threatening behavior, who also reported he was mentally ill. Wise and Cos-Y-Leon arrived to provide backup.

During a confrontation near 120th Avenue and Quebec Street, Saiki shot at Williams, according to the investigation. Cos-Y-Leon fired at Saiki when he believed Saiki pointed his gun at him, but did not announce his intention to use force or turn on his body-worn camera, according to Mason’s letter.

Saiki later pointed his handgun at officers again after they gave several commands to drop it, according to Mason’s decision, prompting Wise to fire once at Saiki with a rifle.

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After a further standoff with a tactical team and an attempt by police to de-escalate the situation by putting Saiki on a phone call with his younger sister, Saiki shot himself in the head, according to Mason’s letter. Saiki died at a hospital.

“The officers in this situation made every reasonable effort to safely contact Mr. Saiki without harm,” Mason’s letter states. “The evidence supports each of these officers’ belief that Mr. Saiki presented an imminent danger to them and that responding with a lesser degree of force was not reasonable in the moment.”