The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office cleared both Westlake police officers involved in a deadly use of force case from October on Thursday.
On October 10, 2016, Westlake Police officers Stephen Krebs and Anthony Lavolpa shot and killed 26-year-old Devan Desnoyers when they responded to a 911 report of an armed robbery at the CVS on Bradley and Detroit roads around 9:30 a.m.
After Desnoyers fled the scene, he crashed his car at the intersection of Crocker and Detroit roads. He was quickly surrounded by police, and officers at the scene said that he reached for a bottle of oxycodone and then pulled a replica firearm from his waistband.
When he pulled the replica, Officers Krebs and Lavolpa fired a total of seven shots which fatally wounded Desnoyers. It was only after they pulled him from the vehicle, they saw the gun was a replica.
After an investigation from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office and the FBI, both the Prosecutor's Office and the Grand Jury concluded Thursday that under the circumstances both officers were justified in using deadly force.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Timothy McGinty said "Given the hold-up that had just happened that morning and the actions of Mr. Desnoyers in the seconds before the shooting when he refused to obey their commands and instead drew a gun, the Officers made reasonable decision to fire their weapons and stop a potential threat to themselves and their fellow Officers. The police did their duty. Police are trained and expected to shoot in such a situation. There is no other reasonable course of conduct available that would not endanger officers and the public."
He went on to also give his condolences for Desnoyers by saying, "At the same time, our sympathies go out to the family of Mr. Desnoyers. The evidence shows that before a series of crimes in the last year of his life, he had no significant record. He became addicted to painkillers after an injury, and that addiction rapidly took over his life. He, too, is another victim of the opioid epidemic that has so devastated our community."
