Prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against two Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputies who fatally shot a 52-year-old woman in September 2021 who was wanted in connection with a murder investigation.

District Attorney Rebecca Gleason cleared deputies Joseph Hallett and Tyler Zimmerman of wrongdoing in the death of Lisa Garcia in a decision letter released Tuesday.

“Deputies Hallett and Zimmerman reasonably believed that Lisa Garcia posed an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to themselves and members of the public,” Gleason said in the letter. “Both Arapahoe County Deputies had the legal right to defend themselves and others.”

Deputy Justin Yantiss was also cleared for shooting Garcia with a less-lethal shotgun after she had already been fatally shot by the other deputies and was lying on the ground.

The shooting occurred Sept. 3, 2021. Denver police officers were scouting an apartment in the 7500 block of East Harvard Avenue, looking for Garcia. At the time, Garcia was wanted for first-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of her relative, 41-year-old Neomi Tafoya, on July 24, 2021.

Denver police asked the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office for help and, when the responding deputies arrived, they saw Garcia walking outside of the apartment complex, the letter said.

Garcia ran away but the deputies cornered her, at which point she pulled out an airsoft gun from her purse and pointed it at the deputies, the letter said. Believing it was a real gun, Hallett and Zimmerman fired a total of nine rounds at her.

Garcia fell to the ground and was later pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy concluded that she had been shot in the chest, shoulder, neck and fingers.

While Garcia was on the ground, Yantiss arrived and ordered her to show him her hands. When she didn’t respond, he fired a less-lethal shotgun at her buttocks twice after he said he saw her leg move, the letter said.

“Although the handgun was later determined to be an airsoft pistol, there was no way, in the limited moment they had to decide, for the deputies to distinguish it from a lethal firearm,” Gleason said in the letter. “It was reasonable for the officers to conclude it was a real firearm capable of deadly force.”

The deputies were wearing their uniforms and identified themselves as law enforcement before the shooting, the letter said. The deputies’ report of the incident was corroborated by body camera footage.