State and local officials have completed their review and closed the case on a fatal shooting by police in Sioux City. Woodbury County Attorney P-J Jennings issued a 20-page report Thursday finding no fault on the part of the Sioux City Police Department in the deadly shooting of Ellis Parker Junior last fall at a local trailer court.
Today, Sioux City Police Chief Joe Frisbee concurred with the finding. Frisbee says the report could be summed up in two sentences, not 20 pages. "Had Parker not made his aggressive moves toward the officers, they would not have needed to use deadly force," Frisbee says, "The actions taken by officers were reasonable under the circumstances and justified under the laws of the state of Iowa."
Parker was shot and killed by police after jumping through the window of his burning mobile home last October and charging police twice with a butcher knife. Seven months later, Frisbee says officers are still dealing with the shooting.Frisbee says the shooting has been "terribly hard on them" and a lot of them are still undergoing counseling to deal with the shooting.
The county attorney’s report was based on information from the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, the State Medical Examiner’s Office, video taken from police patrol cars and individual interviews