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Two officers have been cleared of any criminal involvement regarding a deadly shooting in Old Town on March 10, 2012. Marquez Smart, 23, was shot and killed by police during the incident.
District Attorney Nola Foulston released the findings from her office, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Wichita Police Department on Thursday morning.
The report states that on March 10, 2012, around 2 a.m., officers were helping to clear a large crowd from the 200 block of North Mosely when they saw Smart holding a gun. One officer says he saw Smart shoot the gun and run. Officers started chasing Smart and say he ignored their commands to stop running and put the gun down. Both officers started shooting. Smart was shot. He was taken to Via Christi on St. Francis where he was pronounced dead.
On-duty and several off-duty officers were helping with crowd control. There were 200 to 500 people in the area when the shots were exchanged. Four bystanders were hit. A woman was struck by one of the two shots fired from Smart's .45 caliber handgun. Neither she nor the other three victims suffered life-threatening injuries.
Autopsy results show Smart was shot multiple times - in the right hip, right elbow, and three times in the back. According to forensic evidence, the two officers fired a total of seven shots.
The investigation will now go to the Wichita Police Department Professional Standards Bureau for review and to make sure policies and regulations were violated by the officers involved in the incident.