The officer-involved fatal shooting of a man in McCurtain County, Okla., was justified, according to a statement from District 17 Prosecuting Attorney Mark Matloff.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation report was completed and turned over to Matloff, who made a recent ruling on the fatal shooting by an officer.
"I determined the shooting to be a justifiable homicide, and law enforcement officers acted appropriately. I notified the family of the ruling," Matloff said.
The OSBI investigation was requested by the McCurtain County Sheriff's Department after the shooting occurred April 30. The man fatally shot by officers was Devin Hawkins, 32, of Foreman, Ark.
The sheriff's office got a call about a man with a gun walking down a road near Tom, Okla., and threatening to kill people, the OSBI report states.
When deputies arrived in the area, they were told the subject had run into a wooded area. While patrolling the area, a deputy saw a pickup truck leaving a home on Jasper Hollow Road near where the subject was seen, OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown said.
The deputy pulled the vehicle over. The driver lived at the residence and told the deputy he was giving the passenger, whom he did not know, a ride. The deputy asked the passenger if he had a weapon. The subject showed the deputy a gun in his waistband. The subject then grabbed the handgun and put it to his head. By this time, another deputy and the Sheriff Kevin Clardy had arrived on the scene, Brown said.
The deputies tried to get Hawkins to put down the gun and get out of the truck. He refused and pointed the gun at the sheriff, firing at least one time. Deputies then shot Hawkins, killing him. No one else was injured. OSBI special agents arrived on the scene shortly after and conducted interviews and documented the scene. Agents provided Matloff a report of the shooting.
Hawkins was involved in three incidents with law enforcement in Foreman, Ark.
He originally was arrested in March 2016 on a felony escape charge and had been released on bond. On March 14, 2017, Hawkins received a three-year probated sentence for the escape charge.
The probation rules prohibited Hawkins' purchase, ownership, control or possession of any firearm or other prohibited deadly weapon at any time or being in the company of any person possessing such.
The second incident with Little River County law enforcement occurred April 14, 2016, when Hawkins reportedly discharged an AR-15 rifle periodically during the night. Hawkins was living in a storage building behind a house that burned in March 2016.
"Hawkins told family members he would not be taken out alive and he would have to be taken out feet first in a body bag," the report states.
The third incident occurred April 15, 2016, when Hawkins was involved in a standoff in Foreman, Ark.