DES MOINES, Iowa — Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham has reviewed the investigation conducted by the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation into a deadly officer-involved shooting in November and concluded that it was reasonable to use deadly force.

Charles Leonard, 70, was shot and killed by Des Moines police officers after he brandished what appeared to be a gun in the lobby of a residential tower in downtown Des Moines. It was discovered during the investigation that the gun Leonard was holding was a pellet gun, which closely resembled a real pistol. It was also discovered that the pellet gun did not have the orange safety cone attached that would have identified it as a pellet gun.

Graham released a letter on Friday detailing her findings, which said in part:

In regard to the specifics of Officer Herzog’s and Officer Bishop’s conduct that day, I have reviewed all the body-worn camera footage of both of the named officers and other officers on scene, and have reviewed all of the evidence reviewed and produced by the Division of Criminal Investigation. We appreciate the thorough work of the DCI.

Given all the circumstances, it was reasonable for Officer Herzog and Officer Bishop to conclude that their lives, the lives of other officers on scene, and the lives of everyone in the building and area were in imminent danger at the time the deadly force was used.

Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham

“Anytime we have a situation like this we invite and independent third-party to come in and do the investigation, and that’s the Division of Criminal Investigation with the state and they gathered all the evidence,” said Sgt. Paul Parizek, of the Des Moines Police Department. “The investigation was sent onto the Attorney General‘s Office and the County Attorney’s Office and both of them reviewed all that, and it was pretty obvious to them that this was a justified shooting.”

Sgt. Parizek went on to say that their goal is to de-escalate these kinds of situations before any shots are fired.

“Ultimately, our goal is to get to a point where we can negotiate and de-escalate, and if we have a person who wants to participate in that process with us that helps so much because then we’re able to use our training to talk to them, work things down a little bit.”

The officers involved in the shooting remain on administrative assignment.

Metro News: