Prosecutor declines to charge officer in deaf man’s killing
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma prosecutor announced Friday that he won’t charge a police officer who fatally shot a deaf man, determining the killing was legally justified after the man aggressively approached the officer while armed with a 2-foot metal pipe.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater cleared Officer Chris Barnes in the Sept. 19 shooting of 35-year-old Magdiel Sanchez outside his south Oklahoma City home. A second officer who shot Sanchez with a Taser, Lt. Matt Lindsey, also acted justifiably because of the potential threat to the officers’ lives, Prater said.
“At the moment Officer Barnes discharged his pistol he was acting in self-defence and, in my opinion, had no other reasonable option to prevent Mr. Sanchez from seriously injuring or killing him,” Prater said. “Both officers employed techniques in an attempt to de-escalate and bring the situation to a peaceful ending. It is due to no fault of the officers that the matter ended violently.”
Both Barnes and Lindsey tried to render aid to Sanchez immediately after the shooting, Prater said.