Oregon Public Broadcasting

No charges will be filed against the Fairview police officer who shot and killed Larry McKinney last month.

Fairview Police Chief, Kenneth Johnson, says two of his officers, Mike Morton and Joe Kaiser, were sent to the Wood Creek Apartments after a report of a, "drunk sounding complainant who says there's a male being violent."

Johnson said when the officers reached the top of the stairs to the apartment, McKinney darted out with a large kitchen knife cocked over the top of his shoulder.

"Officer Kaiser recognized this posture as the action of one who is attacking someone with a knife. Officer Kaiser stated that he was too close to McKinney to draw and fire his weapon. In that split second he knew he was going to die. Officer Kaiser said there was no doubt in his mind, whatsoever, that McKinney was going to thrust the knife into the top of his head," Johnson said.

A grand jury found no criminal action in Officer Morton's shooting of McKinney.

But McKinney's mother, Sandra Kelley, says officers fired from the foot of the stairs, not the top.

A'Use of Force Review Board will now consider the case.