Granville DA clears deputies in drug suspect's shooting

During a Feb. 23 undercover drug buy, authorities said, Shamar Evans tried to run two deputies over in the parking lot of a Bojangles' off U.S. Highway 15 in Oxford, authorities said.

The deputies fired their guns, and Evans wasn't shot, but he was injured by glass from a shattered window, authorities said.

One deputy was hurt during the incident.

"Three officers discharged their firearm during this incident and all three officers possessed a reasonable fear of the imminent use of deadly force by the suspect, Mr. Shamar Evans," Water wrote in his report, which summarized the findings of a State Bureau Investigation review of the shooting.

Still, the prosecutor criticized the decision to conduct an undercover drug operation outside a busy fast-food restaurant, noting they were lucky that no one was seriously hurt or killed.

"The Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Unit would be better advised not to undertake buy/bust operations in congested, public areas," Waters wrote. "Although the officers were legally justified in using lethal force, my findings are not an attempt to minimize the officers' responsibility for the decision to undertake the operation at that particular time and place. Officer-involved shootings have come under immense scrutiny recently, and incidents such as these have become sources of friction between the officers and the communities they serve."

Evans faces five counts of assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill, as well as possession of heroin and possession of heroin with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver charges in the incident.