Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry [official profile] on Tuesday announced [statement, PDF] that the state will not be filing charges against the two Baton Rouge police officers involved in the 2016 fatal shooting of Alton Sterling.

Coupled with the statement, the the Louisiana Department of Justice (LADOJ) [official site] released 34 page report [text, PDF] detailing the key findings of the investigation and concluding that the use of force was justified. Among other things, the report contains a summary of the events that lead to the fatal shooting, including multiple witness statements, as well as testimony from two ‘use of force experts’ and an overview of relevant state law. The report also references a toxicology report, which found Sterling tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids, and other drugs at the time of the shooting. In consideration of all the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident, the report determined that the two officers acted:

as reasonable officers under the circumstances in response to their investigation into the complaint of Aggravated Assault with a Firearm in the very early morning hours of July 5, 2016…[and] [w]here law enforcement officers have a legal defense to any criminal charge based on justification, including those only requiring proof of criminal neglect, it would be a violation of [the LADOJ’s] mandate to uphold the laws and Constitution of the State of Louisiana, as well as [the LADOJ’s] prosecutorial obligations under the Rules of Professional Conduct, to take any further action.

Whether the officers will receive any form of discipline for the killing will now be determined by the Baton Rouge Police Department, which plans to conclude disciplinary hearings by Friday.

Outrage over Sterling’s death lead to a renewal of Black Lives Matter [advocacy website] protests across the country when a cell phone video was released depicting Sterling pinned to the ground by police officers before being shot a total of six times. The officers claim that Sterling was not complying with their instructions and reaching for a gun, which was later found on Sterling’s person, but video footage did not show the gun visible at any point prior to the shooting.

This decision comes 10 months after federal prosecutors determined that they would not file civil rights charges against the officers after conducting an investigation [JURIST report] into the killing. This marks the latest chapter of a contentious national conversation about the use of police force, particularly against black citizens.