The two Cleveland Metroparks rangers who shot and killed a 33-year-old man at the Justice Center were justified in using deadly force, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Monday.
McGinty cleared rangers Chelsea McLellan and Kyle Schultz of wrongdoing in the Dec. 8, 2015 death of Derek Stokes, he said in a letter released to media.
Stokes – who was under arrest at the time – brandished a gun and fired at the rangers, who returned fire, officials said in December.
“Any officer situated in a similar position, and faced with similar facts, would have acted in a similar fashion to end the deadly threat posed by Mr. Stokes,” McGinty wrote in a letter to Metroparks Chief Ranger Dan Veloski.
The rangers arrested Stokes at Lakefront Reservation after finding a bag containing white powder in his car. The powder was later determined to be a mix of cocaine and heroin, investigators said.
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