The Aurora Police Department says the SWAT officer who fired Kilyn Lewis in May did not violate agency policy.

Lewis, 37, was wanted by police in connection with a shooting outside a shopping center near 48th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard earlier this month. Officers were attempting to arrest the Denver resident in Aurora when they shot him.

Police body camera footage shows that Lewis did not obey the officer’s commands during the attempted arrest and then pulled out a black object from behind his back. Officer Michael Dieck fired one shot, striking Lewis. He died two days later. The object he produced turned out to be a cell phone.

Lewis’ family released a statement Friday following APD’s findings, saying in part: “The Aurora Police Department has chosen not to hold Officer Dieck accountable for the life he took.” . Instead, they invited him back to the very community he betrayed. With this decision, our pain, already unbearable, worsened.

Standard policies determine the level of force used by police in the field. If an officer fears for his life, he is authorized to use deadly force. In Colorado, the law allows police officers to use deadly force “if the peace officer has an objectively reasonable belief that a lesser degree of force is inappropriate and the peace officer has objectively reasonable grounds to believe, and believes effectively, that he or another person is in imminent danger of being killed or suffering serious bodily injury,” according to state law.

In this case, APD’s internal investigation determined that Lewis’s advancing toward police and producing the object was consistent with conduct that warranted the use of deadly force.

Other factors are also considered when officers choose to fire their weapons, including the crime the suspect is accused of. In that case, Lewis was accused of firing in a shooting that injured a bystander.

APD’s findings are consistent with those of the 18th Forensic Critical Incident Response Team which determined in October that Officer Dieck’s use of force did not violate state law. The case was also presented to the Arapahoe County grand jury, which found insufficient evidence to charge Officer Dieck with a crime.

However, the independent monitor of the Aurora consent decree has found critical issues in the filming. THE progress report published last month questioned whether the Aurora SWAT team’s involvement in executing a Denver arrest warrant was appropriate or necessary. He also questioned the tactical approach officers took without the use of non-lethal force during the “high-risk stop.”

Officer Dieck has been a member of the Aurora Police Department for 13 years and is currently assigned to the Electronic Support Section.