"The police officers ... had no other reasonable alternative but to resort to lethal force," said Clifton Purvis, director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team. (CBC)

Two RCMP officers involved in a July standoff in Vegreville in which a man was shot and killed were justified in using lethal force and will face no criminal charges, the director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) announced Friday.

"The investigation has concluded that during the incident, the police officers had reason to be fearful of death or grievous bodily harm to themselves or other members of the public who were present in that location," ASIRT director Clifton Purvis said.

Leo Raymond Poulin, 59, was shot three times by one of the officers in a parking lot in downtown Vegreville on July 12 after he ignored orders from officers to put down a loaded sawed-off shotgun.

The investigation found that Poulin had appeared to be highly agitated, and witnesses had reported the man had been depressed in the weeks leading up to the incident, Purvis said.

"The police officers in dealing with him were met with a very real danger and had no other reasonable alternative but to resort to lethal force in meeting the danger presented to them," Purvis said.

Both officers assessed the risk using sound judgment, Purvis said.

"The RCMP officers' decision to use lethal force against the male has been determined to be justified under authority of Section 25 of the Criminal Code.… As a result, no criminal charges will be laid against the officers involved in this incident," he said.

Purvis said it is unclear to investigators what the man's motivation was for confronting the officers, but the man had called to the local RCMP detachment and said he was coming there.

A car was dispatched to try to intercept the man. Purvis said the man didn't say anything specific to indicate what his motivation was, but the operator who took the call "determined that he may present a danger if he arrived at the RCMP detachment."

ASIRT is an independent agency that investigates all incidents in Alberta involving police that result in death or serious injury.