OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) A county attorney says police and sheriff’s deputies were justified in the fatal shooting of an unarmed eastern Kansas teenager.
KSHB-TV reports Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting issued his ruling Tuesday in the death of 18-year-old Ottawa resident Joseph Jennings on Aug. 25.
The shooting took place in a parking lot after police received a 911 call about a man waving a handgun and putting the weapon in his waistband. The caller turned out to be Jennings.
The responding officers told him to raise his hands. Instead, the county attorney’s report says, Jennings pulled a dark item from his waistband and pointed it toward some officers, who opened fire.
The item turned out to be sunglasses. Relatives have said Jennings was depressed and may have wanted to goad police into killing him.
