The Onondaga County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed two teenagers in DeWitt in 2023 following a car theft and burglary incident will not be charged by the New York state Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation, which in its report released Friday said the deputy’s actions were justified.

Killed in the shooting were Dhal Pothwi Apet, 17, and Lueth Mo, 15, both of Syracuse.

The incident in question stretched across multiple counties, and according to authorities, started on the evening of Sept. 6, 2023, where two vehicles were reported stolen. Those vehicles were then reported to be at a smoke shop in the city of Oneida, in Madison County, which was burglarized later that night. Those vehicles were then seen at another smoke shop on East Molloy Road in the town of Salina and triggered a burglary alarm. Surveillance video shows three occupants in both vehicles left that scene. While an Onondaga County sheriff's deputy was at the scene of the burglary alarm, a call went out for a suspicious vehicle on Danzig Street in the town of DeWitt.

When the deputy arrived on Danzig Street, authorities said one of the two vehicles fled the scene while the other drove toward the deputy, apparently attempting to flee. The deputy then fired three shots at the vehicle, which then fled the scene. That vehicle then crashed on Mooney Avenue. Apet was pronounced dead at the scene, and Mo was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead later that morning.

The third occupant of the vehicle, another Syracuse teen, initially got away but was arrested in a separate case in January 2024 after police say he was caught with a stolen car in Rochester.

“After a thorough investigation, which included review of nearby home security camera footage and 911 calls, interviews with civilian witnesses, ballistic and trace evidence analysis, video enhancement, consultation with experts in both shooting reconstruction and use of force, and comprehensive legal analysis, OSI concluded that a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officer’s actions were justified under New York law,” the report Friday read.

The families of the two teenagers filed suit against the sheriff’s office shortly after the incident.

As per a state law passed in 2020, the New York Attorney General’s office is required to investigate any incident in which a member of law enforcement is reported to have caused the death of a person by act or omission.

“Under New York’s justification law, a police officer may use deadly physical force when the officer reasonably believes it to be necessary to defend against the use of deadly physical force by another. Justification is a defense to criminal charges, and the prosecutor must disprove justification beyond a reasonable doubt at trial,” the report read. “In this case, a car whose occupants were suspected of involvement in an earlier burglary was driving toward the deputy, who was standing in or near its path. Based on enhanced video, civilian statements, expert consultation on the path of the car and the position of the deputy, and expert consultation on the use of force, OSI concluded that a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the deputy reasonably perceived the car to be about to collide with him, nor disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the deputy reasonably believed that firing into the car was a way to prevent himself from being harmed. Therefore, OSI determined that criminal charges would not be pursued in this matter.”

The Office of Special Investigations recommended the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office should equip officers with body-worn cameras and police vehicles with dashboard cameras. They should also implement policies and training to ensure that police interactions such as these are captured on these cameras to aid in possible investigations such as this one.