Prosecutors clear 2 Stillwater police officers in fatal shooting of man at apartment complex

STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota prosecutors say they will not file charges against two Stillwater police officers in the shooting death of a man in an apartment complex parking lot because their use of force was justified.

O’Kwan Rahmier Sims, 21, was fatally shot March 4 by two officers responding to an active-shooter call.

Washington County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said in a news release Thursday that his decision came after prosecutors reviewed an investigative file from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension consisting of more than “2,000 pages of reports, dozens of photographs, and hours of video and audio evidence,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

According to the release, Sims lived with his mother in the Curve Crest Villas. Sims came out of his bedroom with a gun that afternoon and shot his mother’s friend in the knee for no apparent reason, it said.

Officers responding to multiple reports of shots fired spotted Sims holding a handgun with an extended magazine, the release said. They ordered him to drop it but he ran around the building where they lost sight of him. As they retrieved a rifle and ballistic shield from their squad car, they heard around 20 to 30 more shots.

When Sgt. Daniel Young and Officer Justin Dowley saw Sims again, the release said, he “pointed the pistol at officers,” and they simultaneously fired at Sims. Sims was struck three times. He was pronounced dead at a St. Paul hospital. Investigators found 51 bullet cartridges believed to have been fired by Sims, according to the release, and confirmed he fired shots that struck two squad cars.

“These officers really had no other option,” Magnuson said in the statement.