KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said no charges will be filed against the officers who shot and killed a man in a standoff in April.
"In the end, this ended I think in the only way that it could," said Getting during a press conference which included law enforcement from the city, county and state.
Getting said on April 18, managers at the Pavilion Estates Mobile Home Park called for police to remove two squatters from their property, one being David Gino Teneyuque.
"He and his girlfriend Crystal Courtney were living at the time in a van that was parked in a driveway of one of the trailers," he said.
Getting said when police tried to make contact with him they heard a gun being "racked." So they retreated and called for the SWAT team and backup.
"Mr. Teneyuque, the entire time, remained hostile, agitated, [and] confrontational with the police," Getting said.
Police spent more than an hour trying to negotiate with him, he stated. Getting said that he made comments about not going back to jail and that he wanted police to shoot him.
Getting also stated that Teneyuque was in possession of two guns. They turned out to be fake but they appeared real to the officers at that time, especially when he stepped out of his van with the weapon in his right hand. Police the shot bean bags at him, using the non-lethal approach. But that didn't stop him.
"His right hand comes out from under, with that gun," said Getting referring to dash-cam video played during the press conference. "It starts to come up. It comes up. It comes up. And it points directly at the police."
Once he pointed a gun at them, four officers fired 15 rounds at him. Nine shots hit Teneyuque and he died at a local hospital. Getting concluded not to charge the officers involved in the fatal shooting, believing they made the best decision possible.
"Each of them had an honest and reasonable belief that they and others were in immediate danger of serious injury or death," said Getting. "The action they took was immediately necessary both to protect themselves and to protect others from that danger."
