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Prosecutors say officers involved in fatal shooting of Salina man will not face charges
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Prosecutors say officers involved in fatal shooting of Salina man will not face charges

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police officers and state troopers involved in the fatal shooting of Salina man were justified in their actions and will not be charged, prosecutors said.

Salina police officers went to the home of Larry Wray Jr., 44, on July 24 to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. While doing so, an officer spotted 25-year-old Jesse Wray in the detached garage pointing a gun at the officer, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Friday. Jesse Wray also had a warrant and the officers retreated, the KBI said.

Other officers and soldiers arrived. Jesse Wray refused the order to get out. After a while, they saw smoke and flames coming out of the garage and the door opened. A female came out with her hands up. Jesse Wray ran up behind her and crouched in the back of a pickup truck in what appeared to be a shooting position, holding out his hands toward the officers, the release said. Two officers fired nine rounds but did not hit him.

Jesse Wray then ran to the side of the garage where he encountered an officer and a trooper. They fired four shots, fatally wounding him. Investigators recovered a black BB gun that was designed to look like a revolver in the damaged garage and determined the fire was set intentionally.

Saline County Jeffrey Abel said in a letter to the KBI on Nov. 4 that while the video clearly shows that Wray did not have a gun in his hand when he exited the garage, his gestures and posture “would lead any reasonable person to believe that a gun it was raised and pointed at the officers.”

He added that no one would be charged “because any reasonable officer would believe that the use of deadly force was justified.”

A funeral home obituary indicated that Jesse Wray was Larry Wray’s son.