Two St. Paul police officers were cleared by a grand jury Wednesday of any wrongdoing in the shooting death of a suspected grocery store robber last year.
A grand jury issued a "no bill" in the slaying of Melvin Fletcher Jr., 20, of Brooklyn Park, who was shot and killed Dec. 17 by at least one officer after he allegedly robbed Kowalski's Market at 1261 Grand Av., according to a release by the Ramsey County attorney's office.
The jurors determined that probable cause did not exist to charge officers Theodore Mackintosh and Jeffrey Thissen, who both have more than a decade of experience with the department, and that their use of deadly force was authorized.
The incident began as an 8:30 a.m. robbery call at Kowalski's, where Fletcher pointed a gun at people in the store and took an undisclosed amount of money before fleeing through a rear entrance, police said.
Officers chased him on foot and fired shots as they followed Fletcher down into a wooded area near Ayd Mill Road. Fletcher was later taken to Regions Hospital, where he died.
NICOLE NORFLEET
