Editor’s note: Denver District Attorney Beth McCann on July 21 announced that after reviewing the investigation of this police shooting, no criminal charges will be filed against the two Denver Police Department officers — Officer Matthew Mullen and Sgt. Arturo Garcia — who shot and killed Frankie Lee Evans, 55. See McCann’s full decision letter here.

An investigation began Tuesday following a fatal standoff Monday night during which a man who police say threatened family members with a knife and began assaulting one of them was fatally shot dead by Denver police.

Police responded around 8:30 p.m. to reports of a family disturbance in a house near the intersection of Montview Boulevard and North Oneida Street. The officers found a man with a knife holding two family members in a room, threatening them and preventing them from leaving, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said at the scene.

The police called for a crisis negotiator and an ambulance. But before the crisis negotiators arrived, the suspect, at about 9:30 p.m., began assaulting one of the family members with the knife, Thomas said.

Police fired shots and the suspect went down, he said. “The officers had to immediately respond to a situation where this individual’s life was in danger.”

The person injured in the knife attack was hospitalized and listed in serious but stable condition, police said.

A joint investigation by Denver police, with the Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, has been launched to determine what happened. Findings will be sent to the Denver District Attorney’s Office for a legal evaluation of whether the use of force was justified.

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