Officers say that they felt threatened by suicidal man before he was shot and killed by Washington County deputy

Two Washington County sheriff's deputies testified in court Thursday that they felt threatened by an armed and suicidal man shortly before their colleague, deputy Brian Krook, shot him to death.

Their testimony about the 2018 shooting of Benjamin Evans, 23, bolstered the account of Krook, who has told investigators that he fired the fatal shots almost 40 minutes into negotiations with Evans because Evans turned in such a way that the gun he was holding to his head was also pointed at the deputies.

A grand jury indicted Krook, 31, on second-degree manslaughter charges over the April 2018 incident. He is the third law enforcement officer in recent years to face criminal charges for a fatal shooting while on duty in Minnesota.

Testifying on Thursday, deputy Joshua Ramirez said he was so focused on saving Evans' life that he looked past several factors that would have justified using deadly force.

Evans had his finger on the trigger of a handgun, and even though he had it pointed at his own head, he kept turning around so that the gun would sweep past the deputy's position, Ramirez said. He added that he negotiated longer than he should have.

"In hindsight, I probably should have shot him," Ramirez said. He said he might have decided not to use force that night because he "missed something," or it could have been "incompetence on my part."

Hearing that, prosecutor Thomas Hatch accused Ramirez of using his testimony to help Krook's defense.

Ramirez insisted that wasn't true, and that based on his training he now believes he had justification to shoot Evans.

"But you chose not to," Hatch said.

"I chose not to," Ramirez said.

A second deputy, Michael Ramos, also testified that he felt threatened that night, saying Evans was "flagging" the deputies every time he turned his head. The deputies explained that meant Evans was pointing his gun at them.

But Ramos didn't use that term when he spoke to the grand jury, and prosecutors asked him why he characterized it that way now.

"He was flagging us," Ramos said.

"Was his head in the way?" Johnson asked.

"Not every time," Ramos said.

Evans, who had worked as an EMT and was in the process of becoming a Lake Elmo firefighter, was holding a semiautomatic handgun to his head after learning that his friend was dating his ex-girlfriend. The trial is scheduled to resume Friday.