NORFOLK, Va. — Two Norfolk police officers who fired their guns at a suspect on Vincent Avenue last August were justified and won't face charges, the city's Commonwealth's Attorney said Tuesday.
The shooting happened on the evening of Aug. 31, 2022.
Police Sergeant Edward Lord and Investigator Logan Luketic were on patrol when they decided to look into two "suspicious vehicles stopped in the road," according to a Norfolk Police Department statement released a couple days later.
Police say a man near the vehicles began shooting at the officers, injuring Luketic, and that's when Lord and Luketic opened fire.
The suspect, later identified as Ali Moore, was not hit by gunfire.
Shortly after the shooting, police were notified of a gunshot victim near the scene. According to the police statement, officers located the man, who had a gunshot wound that was not life threatening, and took him to a nearby hospital.
Moore was arrested on several charges, including aggravated malicious wounding, attempted aggravated malicious wounding and the use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
In a letter sent to Virginia State Police this week, Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi wrote that criminal charges against Lord and Luketic aren't justified since they were responding to the use of deadly force against them.
Fatehi declined to explain his conclusions, citing Moore's pending trial.
"In accordance with my ethical obligations as a prosecutor and specifically my obligation to afford that individual a fair trial, I will have no further comment on this incident until after that case is fully resolved," Fatehi wrote.