KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- No charges will be filed against police officers who shot and killed an apparently suicidal teenager in Grandview last year, the Jackson County Prosecutor's office said.
The officers shot Lantz Stephenson Jr., 17, several times at a park May 16 after he pointed a BB gun that looked like a weapon at them, investigators said.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a letter Jan. 7 the officers' actions "were within the scope of their legal authority" as Missouri law enforcement officers, the Kansas City Star reported.
Baker's letter, based in part on an investigation by the Missouri Highway Patrol, said Stephenson called police dispatchers to say he had a gun and wanted to get in a "shoot out" with police.
When officers arrived, Stephenson advanced toward them with what looked like a weapon and refused commands to put it down, prompting officers to fire, according to the letter.
Paramedics who arrived after the shooting asked Stephenson if he was attempting suicide and he nodded he was, the letter said. He later died during surgery at a hospital.