PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- A Providence County grand jury found that the Pawtucket police were legally justified in the fatal shooting of an Attleboro man who tried shoot officers in early May.
As Officers Emmanuel Mejia and Jess Venturini approached Jamie Coyle's car outside a housing complex on May 2, he started to get out with a gun, according to police statements at the time.
Coyle tried to shoot, but his gun jammed, Public Safety Director Tony Pires said Thursday. That's when the officers opened fire and killed him, Pires said.
"A life was lost, but it could have been an officer's life," Pires said.
The officers were cleared by an internal investigation, and then by the grand jury, which declined to return indictments, the attorney general's office said Thursday.
Coyle was the fifth person fatally shot by the Pawtucket police in six years.
This report was published initially at 10:41 a.m.