The Grand Junction police officer who shot and killed a 24-year-old parole absconder during a November traffic stop gone wrong won't face criminal charges, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein announced Tuesday. Officer Jacob Steele was justified when he shot Grand Junction resident Brian Gaither 10 times in the chest and abdomen Nov. 22 because Steele, who was trapped half-in and half-out of a car and had been dragged along a wall just before he opened fire, "was operating on the belief that using deadly physical force was his only option to defend against the force being used," Rubinstein said in his written decision.
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