From [HERE] A U.S. Park Police officer will not face charges, federal prosecutors in Washington DC announced Thursday, citing insufficient evidence. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had opened a civil investigation into the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin on March 18, 2023. The announcement comes two days after the US Park Police released police bodycam footage of the shooting.

the shooting, which occurred when Washington Metropolitan Police and US Park Police were called to a neighborhood in northeast Washington, D.C. on the morning of March 18. Once there, officers found Martin in the driver’s seat of a suspected stolen car with the ignition on. The video shows the teen was asleep in the drivers seat of the car. The seat is reclined all the way down

“Here’s the plan,” one of the officers is heard saying in the video. “He’s knocked out. The back window is just plastic. I’m going to try to cut that out quietly. If he gets startled, doesn’t wake up, then we’re going to try to get in there, grab him before he puts that car in gear.” In response, another officer said, “If he takes off, he takes off. Just don’t get caught inside of that car.”

It’s not clear why the police didn’t simply just gently knock on the window to wake up the teen.

The U.S. attorney’s office in a statement said the decision not to charge the unidentified officer in the 2023 death of the driver, Dalaneo Martin, followed a “careful, thorough and independent review” of materials that determined the office could not prove “beyond a reasonable doubt that the United States Park Police Officer is criminally liable for Mr. Martin’s death.”

“This decision is deeply troubling and sends a disturbing message to our community that it is okay for officers to use deadly force against children in the community,” Andrew O. Clarke, one of the Martin family’s attorneys, said in a statement Thursday. “Dalaneo was never posed a direct threat to the officer’s safety or to others in the vicinity. Yet, seconds later, he paid the ultimate price in an encounter that never should have ended in the use of lethal force.”

The Martin family is represented by a group of attorneys including Clark, William H. “Billy” Murphy, who secured a $6.4 million settlement with the city of Baltimore following the in-custody death of Freddie Gray, and Ben Crump, who oversaw a $27 million settlement with Minneapolis following the 2020 death of George Floyd.

Police later discovered a firearm inside the vehicle. Senior D.C. officials said at the time the officers did not know about the gun until after the vehicle had crashed.

After Martin was struck, the vehicle continued to travel northbound on 36th Street, where it crashed into the side of a house. The Park Police body-cam footage ends with the officers rendering aid to Martin, who can be seen lying on grass near the vehicle.

Martin’s family on Thursday criticized authorities for not releasing the name of the officer who shot him.

“I am heartbroken but we will not allow this decision to deter us from seeking justice,” Terra Martin, Martin’s mother, said in a statement.