A district attorney decided two Thornton police officers were justified in the amount of force they used shooting a bank robbery suspect in December.

Officers Rob Lowe and Officer Austin Crowley had been on administrative leave following the December incident, but are now cleared to return to full active duty, according to the 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team decision letter released Tuesday.

The incident began with a call for an armed robbery at the Wells Fargo Bank located at 12040 Colorado Boulevard in Thornton on December 27. Police responded to the call, meeting with the bank employees.

Two individuals, armed with firearms, attempted to rob the bank, according to the employees.

“The male suspect was alleged to demand money and use a shotgun to strike a bank employee,” according to the decision letter. “The female suspect, who the witnesses claimed was also armed, allegedly participated in the effort to escape.”

The suspects left the bank with $41,000, according to witnesses. They were later identified as Angel Matthew Gallegos and April Martinez, according to the release.

Gallegos and Martinez escaped the scene in a dark-colored Lexus SUV. Multiple Thornton police responded, following the vehicle onto Colorado Boulevard. Lowe and Crowley responded, attempting to stop the fleeing vehicle.

After a chase, the suspect vehicle “crashed head-on into a Toyota pickup truck, disabling both vehicles and leaving the driver of the Toyota truck injured,” the release said.

Lowe responded to the crash and allegedly saw Gallegos in the driver’s seat with a shotgun in the “low ready” position. Lowe fired multiple times at Gallegos after believing he was “about to raise the shotgun and fire it at him,” the decision letter said.

Crowley arrived and saw Lowe firing and taking cover. Crowley got out of the vehicle and aimed at Gallegos.

“From this vantage point, he observed Mr. Gallegos inside the driver’s seat ‘hunkered down,’ appearing to manipulate some type of long gun,” the letter said.

Crowley fired at the man until he saw him get out of the vehicle and onto the ground.

Gallegos exited the vehicle and got onto the ground. He was allegedly unarmed at this point. Both officers demanded he stay grounded, but he began to run toward Highway 2. He then stopped a Commerce City Public Works vehicle and attempted to steal the car. He was arrested by other officers.

Upon approaching the vehicle, the officers found Martinez slumped over, according to the release. She appeared to be injured and unresponsive from the crash and had a gunshot wound to her wrist.

Crowley and Lowe were both placed on administrative leave until the CIRT investigation could run its course.

“Under Colorado law, police officers, like any other individual, have the right to defend themselves or others from the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force when it is reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances,” the CIRT decision letter said.

“The officers used a degree of force that the officers reasonably believed to be necessary for the purpose of defending themselves or others,” the letter said.

CIRT went on to say that the prosecution cannot prove the use of force was unjustified. Therefore, the evidence does not support criminal filings against Lowe and Crowley.

Criminal charges against Gallegos and Martinez are still pending in Adams County Court and Federal District Court for the State of Colorado in connection with the bank robbery.