BOISE -- Boise Police officers were justified when they wounded a Meridian man during a parking lot confrontation last fall, a prosecutor ruled.
Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs announced the decision Thursday, five months after 22-year-old Dakota Morris was shot.
Boise Police said at the time that officers were responding to a report of two people acting "suspiciously" inside the Jack in the Box on Fairview Avenue and Maple Grove Road Sept. 19. When officers arrived at the fast-food restaurant, Morris took off, police say, prompting a chase through parking lots and behind businesses.
Morris brandished a firearm during the chase and ignored officers' commands, police say. He was shot after jumping a fence into another parking lot. A black Ruger handgun, believe to belong to Morris, was found at the scene.
Morris was taken to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center for treatment and ultimately survived the shooting. After he was well enough to leave the hospital, he was arrested on felony charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, use of a deadly weapon in commission of a felony, unlawful possession of a firearm and failure to appear.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is set for trial in May.
Although the Critical Incident Task Force investigation is complete, Loebs and the police department have declined to release officer body camera video of the shooting or any additional information about the case, citing the ongoing criminal case.
