The New Year’s Day officer-involved shooting death in Grass Valley has been determined to be legally justified by the Nevada County District Attorney’s Office, following a lengthy investigation. Sheriff’s deputies Brandon Tripp and Taylor King, Grass Valley Police Officer Conrad Ball, and Detective Brian Hooper responded to a 9-1-1 call reporting that 25-year-old Gabriel Strickland was walking down the road, near Adams Avenue and Squirrel Creek Road, and holding what appeared to be a shotgun. Assistant D-A Chris Walsh says they asked Strickland at least 40 times to drop the weapon. At one point Strickland said it wasn’t real, but Deputy Tripp said they didn’t know for sure if it was fake. Strickland then reportedly stated that they didn’t care about him and should just kill him. Walsh says non-lethal force was initially attempted…

Walsh says only Officer Ball was close enough to know the weapon was, in fact, a replica…

Walsh also says the investigation revealed that in the weeks leading up to his death Strickland had been involved in an unsolved shooting, where he shot and wounded a man. And just days before his death, Walsh says Strickland was arrested for illegally being in possession of an actual handgun where he reportedly stated that he was going to make officers kill him.