A Crescent City police officer has been cleared of wrongdoing in connection with the shooting death of 67-year-old John Spencer at the Surf Apartments on Feb. 17, Del Norte County District Attorney Katherine Micks concluded.

Officer Ethan Miller acted in justified self defense and in defense of others, Micks said in a written statement on Friday following an investigation led by California Highway Patrol Officer Adriana Warner. Micks stated she ascribed no criminal liability to Miller’s conduct during the Feb. 17 incident.

According to a summary of the officer-involved shooting, dispatch sent CCPD officers to Surf Apartments, 108 H Street, after receiving a report of a male subject in his apartment with a firearm possibly intent on harming himself. Miller and Sgt. Ed Wilson arrived on scene at about 4:20 p.m. and made contact with Spencer in his apartment.

Officers reported that Spencer had a pistol pointed to his head when they arrived at his apartment. According to Miller’s body camera footage, he and Wilson spent about 30 minutes trying to get Spencer to put the gun down, noting that he was putting his neighbors in danger.

At about 4:34 p.m. Miller and Wilson asked fellow law enforcement to begin evacuating Surf Apartments residents. 

At about 4:59 p.m., after warning Spencer repeatedly not to point his pistol at him and his colleague, Miller fired several rounds, striking Spencer in the lower abdomen. He and Wilson immediately called for medics and applied pressure to the wound.

Paramedics arrived at about 5:06 p.m. 

Spencer was declared deceased at the scene, according to the DA’s report.

In a statement released Monday, Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin thanked the CHP investigation team and the Del Norte County District Attorney for their thorough investigation into the officer-involved shooting.

Griffin said he had requested the CHP to conduct the investigation to maintain public transparency and objectivity.

“CCPD turned over all body camera footage and cooperated fully with the investigation,” he stated. “CCPD also retained an experienced independent investigator to conduct an internal affairs investigation into the incident to see if any CCPD policies were violated.”

According to Griffin, the independent investigator found that no violations of CCPD policy occurred during the incident.