A Dakota County grand jury concluded that an Eagan police officer was legally justified in the deadly shooting of a man in August.
Sgt. Nathan Tennessen and two other officers responded to a man shooting a handgun near a townhouse complex at 1284 Ironwood Lane about noon Aug. 28.
They approached the car of Justin Lee Kulhanek-Derks. He started backing out of a parking spot, ignored verbal commands from the officers to exit the vehicle, and fired a handgun in the direction of the officers. Two of the three Eagan officers fired their assault rifles in response and a shot fired by Tennessen hit Kulhanek-Derks in the head, killing him.
Officers approached the vehicle, found Kulhanek-Derks slumped over in the driver's seat with a 9-millimeter handgun in his left hand. Toxicology tests revealed that he had a blood alcohol concentration of .17 at the time of his death.
In a news release, Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom said that it has been the policy of his office since 1990 to present all cases involving the use of deadly force by a law enforcement officer to a grand jury to determine whether such deadly force was legally justified under Minnesota law.
In order to bring charges against a peace officer for using deadly force in the line of duty, the prosecution must be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of force was not justified and that the intentional firing of a weapon was deadly force.
The question is whether the peace officer's actions are "objectively reasonable" in light of the facts and a circumstance confronting the officer, without regard to the officer's underlying intent or motivation, Backstrom said.
Backstrom expressed his sympathy to the family and friends of Kulhanek-Derks. Although the grand jury determined that the use of deadly force by police was legally justified, any loss of life is a tragic occurrence, he said.
