justified

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter says officers were justified under Indiana law in fatally shooting 35-year-old Jujuan Bates to protect themselves and others as he walked through a neighborhood with a gun, refused commands to drop it, and fired it into the air.

Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker Thursday announced that Elkhart Police officers Thomas Breneman and Nicholas Ragsdale were justified under the law of self-defense in fatally shooting 17-year-old Bryan Ramirez Gomez on Feb. 8.

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter says he won't release officers' body and dash cam videos of the shooting, which are public records, at the request of Hannah Aberegg's family. But Indiana's Access to Public Records Act does not allow for such an exception.

Before trading fire with the shooter and being hit with a bullet, Corporal Paul Vandenburg had been urging two bystanders who were capturing video with their phones to run away.