DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has concluded the Des Moines police officers who killed a man during an exchange of gunfire were acting with "legal justification."
Bird's report, which was issued Friday, comes more than a month after officers returned fire at 37-year-old Joshua Green, killing him.
Two police officers initially stopped Green for traffic violations, including wrong-way driving and a defective brake light, on the morning of Monday, Sept. 16, Bird said. Green's fiancée, Shawna Cunningham, was in the passenger seat.
When the officers got out of their car, Green sped away and a short pursuit ensued. Green's car soon "became disabled" due to a broken axel and officers ordered him out of the car, the report summarizes. When Green did not exit the car, Ofc. Cade Moritz told him he would be tased.
Moritz then tased Green, who began pulling the barbs from the taser out of his body, "[indicating] an ineffective connection," Bird said in her report.
Moritz and two other officers, Ofc. Jacob Boekhoff and Ofc. Frankie Contreras, approached Green, who blocked officers using his foot, according to the report.
Green was still in his car when Moritz tased him a second time, but it wasn't until Boekhoff pulled on Green's foot that he fell out of the car.
Bird said Green "almost immediately" drew a gun from his waistband and began shooting at officers. Moritz was struck in the head, while Boekhoff was struck in the arm.
Boekhoff, Contreras and Capt. Chad Steffan returned fire, striking Green multiple times and kiling him.
"The officers reasonably believed that Green was a serious and immediate threat to their lives and that deadly force was required to stop the threat," Bird wrote in her report.
Bird's report largely mirrors that of Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham, who issued her review of the shooting earlier this week.
Cunningham was indicted by a federal grand jury for her connection to the shooting. She is charged with possession of a firearm after admitting to methamphetamine use, along with aiding and abetting the possession and disposal of a firearm to Green, who was a convicted felon.
