SALINA, Kan. (AP) – Investigators have cleared a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a man last year.

Ottawa County Attorney Betty Mick said Thursday that trooper Justin Rohr was justified in shooting 56-year-old Larry Dean Smith of Delphos last October.

A Kansas Bureau of Investigation found that Smith fired first during a confrontation in a heavily wooded area near Delphos.

 

Smith was scheduled to appear in Saline County District Court the day he was shot. He was facing prison time on 10 drug-related charges. He had been released from prison nine months earlier.

Mick said her office has closed the investigation into the shooting.