No Charges for Police in Fatal Roxbury Shooting

Boston, MA - Suffolk County's District Attorney is not seeking criminal charges against officers who shot and killed a Roxbury man, DA Daniel Conley announced Tuesday.

Officer John Moynihan was shot in the face on March 27, 2015 after police attempted to pull over Angelo West in Roxbury. The resulting shootout left West, 40, dead.

According to a press conference transcript released Tuesday, Conley said he had met with West's family to inform them his office would not seek criminal charges.

"The facts and evidence gathered during this investigation establish beyond any doubt that the two Boston Police officers and one State trooper who discharged their firearms did so in a lawful exercise of self-defense and defense of others," he said.

The DA's office also released a video compiling evidence from area surveillance cameras at the time of the shooting.

"I have to warn you that it will be disturbing, but it should give you an idea of what the officers faced that evening a little over a year ago," Conley said of the video.

“The evidence from a wide variety of sources shows very clearly that Mr. West posed a real and immediate threat to every other person in the area that evening, and that the officers were justified in their actions," Conley said, according to the transcript.

Given the heightened level of scrutiny around police-involved shootings nationwide, Conley repeatedly emphasized the transparency of his office's approach, noting that Boston is one of few cities that mandates district attorney's office oversight (rather than police department) in such cases. Read his full remarks here.

Officer Moynihan was initially placed into a medically induced coma, and later received surgery to remove a bullet from his head. He has since recovered. Moynihan was honored at the White House with the 2014 Top Cop Award for his response to the Watertown shootout with the Boston Marathon bombers.