OKC cop who fatally shot deaf man won't face charges

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma City police officer who fatally shot a deaf man in September “was acting in self-defense,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said Friday.

The district attorney cleared Sgt. Christopher Barnes, an eight-year veteran, of any wrongdoing in the deadly Sept. 19 shooting of Magdiel Sanchez, who was deaf and developmentally disabled.

“At the moment Officer Barnes discharged his pistol, he was acting in self-defense and, in my opinion, had no other reasonable option to prevent Mr. Sanchez from seriously injuring or killing him,” Prater told reporters during a news conference.

Sanchez was shot after failing to comply with officers’ commands to drop a 2-foot metal pipe he was aggressively swinging while approaching the officers, Prater said. Sanchez’s family has characterized the pipe as his “trusted walking stick.”

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