COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Exclusive new video is revealing new details in a deadly bank standoff.
Investigators said a robot checked on the suspect, a Marine veteran, who held hostages in July.
The Cobb County District Attorney talked Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne about a grand jury's decision not to indict an officer who killed the suspect.
The DA's Office said police used two robots to enter the Wells Fargo Bank on Windy Hill Road where frustrated former Marine Brian Easley took two hostages in.
[READ: Cobb County hostage suspect told us by phone he didn't want to hurt anyone]
“It’s an extremely difficult situation for officers to be placed under,” Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds said. “Albeit tragic and albeit a very sad circumstance, they followed the law and did what they were supposed to do.”
Police were using the robots to look into whether Easley was alive or dead after a Cobb police SWAT operator took a shot from outside the building.
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A Cobb County grand jury has now completed its look into whether the shot fired by Cobb County Police Officer Dennis Ponte was justified.
A document shows the grand jury determined the use of force was authorized.
"It was a single shot," Reynolds told Winne. "You have two innocent individuals, bank employees who have done absolutely nothing who are being held as hostages."
The document contains a recommendation the DA take no further action.
“You have to remember that inside this bank there’s an individual who has said, ‘I have explosive devices,’” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said Easley's claim he had a bomb in his backpack was key to the grand jury's decision, no matter that after his death police found the backpack had no bomb.
Even if Easley claimed he would let the hostages go if he was going to detonate, Reynolds said the risk was too great.
"Did Ponte testify to the grand jury?” Winne asked Reynolds.
“He did not. The GBI lead agent did,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said Easley may have believed the system let him down after his service, but he's confident the GBI investigated Easley's death thoroughly and his own major case unit followed up.
Cox Media Group
