The officers involved in the shooting that left an Ohio man dead earlier this week will not be charged, Hamilton County Attorney Melissa Powers said at a news conference Friday.
An investigation was launched after 28-year-old Joe Frasure Jr. died Tuesday, a day after police shot him because they believed he was a robbery suspect. Frasure Jr.’s family said he was cleaning his late grandmother’s house.
Powers said the three officers involved in the incident acted in self-defense because Frasure Jr. refused to comply with orders to get out of the minivan he was in and drove towards the officers, nearly hitting them.
Officers met Frasure and his father, Joseph Frasure Sr., in the back of an apartment building when they responded to a call for a burglary in progress Monday. Frasure Sr. was standing in the driveway near a gray minivan Frasure Jr. was in, Powers said.
The officers yelled orders for them to put their hands up, get out of the vehicle and get on the ground, which Frasure Jr. did not do, Powers said.
“Frasure Jr., in an attempt to escape, put his vehicle in reverse, accelerated and crashed into a tree. The officers continued to yell orders for him to stop and get out of the car,» Powers said. «He put the car in gear, accelerated rapidly and drove his vehicle directly towards the officers.»
After nearly hitting an officer, Frasure Jr. «then steered his vehicle in the direction of the other two officers,» who continued to yell orders for him to stop, Powers said.
«In an act of self-defense, both officers fired their service weapons, approximately 3-4 shots total at the suspect as the vehicle accelerated within feet of them, multiple shots struck the vehicle and at least one shot struck Frasure. The vehicle then crashed into the side of the apartment building,» he said.
In released body camera footage of the incident and seen by NBC News, officers can be seen meeting the two men at approximately 12:43 a.m. in the rear of the apartment building.
«Hey stop it! Put your hands in the air!» An officer holding a gun can be heard yelling as he approached the front of a minivan.
In body cam footage, the officer continues to yell orders at the advancing Frasure Jr., causing the officer to move out of the way.
Frasure Jr. is then seen on body cam driving into the driveway when an officer runs out and shots are fired. He then crashes into the side of the building.
Frasure Jr. was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died of his injuries on Tuesday.
Powers said that ultimately «it doesn’t matter» whether Frasure Jr. was intentionally driving into officers or simply trying to get out of the driveway.
«Whether he was intentionally driving to run over officers, or if he was trying to flee, we’ll never know that answer for sure,» Powers said. «But what we do know is that the lives of the officers were threatened and they felt in danger.»
All three officers are currently in paid administrative jobs and will be receiving counseling, according to Wyoming Police Chief Brooke Brady.
Frasure Jr.’s half-brother and sister-in-law, who were able to view the footage shortly before it was shown at the news conference, say he was just trying to get away from the officers who had their guns drawn.
«His dad put his arms up right away and Joe is in the car and he sees an officer running towards him with a gun drawn, so he freaked out and backed away,» said Erika Frasure, his sister-in-law. «He was running from those officers. They took his life.»
Frasure Jr.’s family says he was at the apartment building to help clean the apartment of his grandmother, Julie Coleman, who had recently passed away.
Powers says it’s her understanding that «nobody had permission to be in that building,» adding that her sister, two children, and her boyfriend were in the apartment at the time of the incident.
“The board of health, in Wyoming, Wyoming City, had prevented anyone from residing in that building. So we really don’t know the actual purpose that someone was in that building for,» Powers said. «It could have been, if they were crouching, were they moving things around? We have no idea.»
People in that building were allowed to retrieve their belongings «during the day only,» Powers added.
Frasure Jr.’s family, who say his grandmother lived in the building until she died on Jan. 6, disputes the prosecutor’s statement.
“This is a situation that could have been easily avoided, all they had to do was stop, obey and explain: ‘I’m here, this is my grandmother’s apartment, we’re here to help my sister’, whatever it is. . Powers said. «But the officers that night, when they made those decisions in that situation, they didn’t know any of that information.»