Police chief, attorney talk DA ruling in Muhsin Sharif shooting

Ugene’s police chief and the attorney representing Muhsin Sharif are speaking out after Lane County’s district attorney ruled the officer-involved shooting lawful.

News at 6" tonight... eugene police chief chris skinner reacts to a decision clearing two of his officers for shooting an armed man two weeks ago.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm matt templeman.

I'm renee mccullough.

Kezi 9 news reporter emma jerome joins us live from the whiteaker neighborhood.

Emma... you actually talked to both sides tonight... right?

Just over two weeks ago this alley between oakshire brewing and builders electric looked very different.

It was the scene of an officer involved shooting that sparked protests and condemnation from certain voices in the community.

Today police chief chris skinner and sharifs lawyer butting heads over what happened... and what should happen next.

Skinner says the internal investigtion will do more than simply look at the video --- which we've all seen by now.

Everything from the initial investigation, to the pursuit and end result and how officiers administered first aid will be looked at closely.

But he said the way the officers handled the situation was appropriate...saying they had only seconds to react.

On the other hand... i spoke with sharif's lawyer... who says the police were trigger happy.

Brian michaels says he doubts the officers feel any remorse.

He called a press release from the lane county district attorney... and the release of the body cam footage... the state's attempt to contaminate the a future jury pool .

Michaels said its police culture to shoot first ask questions later.

Skinner says he's wrong.

"it's the whole idea that they either are trained or they just enjoy using their fireartm as a first response.

If they had time pull a fire arm ., they had time to pull a taser.

If they had time to poll a fire arm they had time to use an asp and knock him down.

These are guys with body armor.

It's hard to believe that a man with a knife could kill any one of them"//skinner: 'we recognize that every time our hand gun comes out of a holster and we're justified in the use of force that it can be life changing for people and it's life changing for the officers involved.

That'll never be anything hat will be apart of this department's philosophical discussion and or culture will be around that and i think that's inflammatory and i think that's an unfair characteristic of this organization" // in the original press release it says that sharif was shot in the left upper chest.

Michaels said that this was an attempt to discredit his client when he said he could not drop the knife after having been shot.

The da's office responded saying they got their injury report from the hospital and that it doesnt even matter which side he was shot on.

It would have been declared lawful either way.

Reporting live