By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — The Ottawa County district attorney announced Monday that an investigation has cleared a Miami police officer of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a 70-year-old man June 21 while responding to an alleged assault inside an apartment house.
Officer Jeffrey Frazier shot and killed Ivar A. Rupley when Rupley allegedly threw a knife at Frazier inside his apartment at 312 C St. S.E.
District Attorney Eddie Wyant said the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation determined that Frazier responded to an apparent threat to his life by shooting Rupley with three rounds and was justified in using deadly force.
Wyant said the investigation determined that Frazier and another officer went to Rupley’s door in the apartment house to confront him about an alleged assault of another tenant that had taken place at the address. Rupley allegedly struck Stephanie Pryor on her neck and on her leg with his cane, and had threatened to shoot her with a firearm.
The officers found the door to Rupley’s apartment partially open and knocked on it. But Rupley allegedly cursed at them and told them to leave. Frazier looked inside and saw Rupley sitting on a bed with the cane in one hand and a knife in the other. A second knife reportedly was visible on a nearby coffee table.
“He told him several times to put the knife down, to put the weapon down,” Wyant said.
Wyant said Frazier is believed to have given Rupley more time than most officers would, or their training recommends, under such circumstances. But Rupley did not comply, and instead raised the knife above his head and threw it at Frazier, prompting the officer to fire three shots in quick succession.
“The knife is a deadly weapon,” Wyant said. “When somebody raises a knife and throws it at an officer like that, that’s deadly force and the officer has the right to respond to that.”
The district attorney said the investigation determined that Frazier had been to the address in December for another matter, and Rupley had made a threat at that time to shoot him with a firearm. Wyant said he was not certain of all the circumstances of the earlier call. But Frazier could not be certain the night of the shooting whether Rupley had a firearm and might intend to use it, he said.
No firearm was reported to have been found at the scene.
Miami police Chief Gary Anderson told the Globe at the time of the shooting that officers had been to the apartment last year. They had Rupley placed in emergency detention and referred to adult protective services at that time because he refused to leave the apartment during a gas leak.
Rupley also had drawn the attention of police last year when he struck the side of a Pelivan Transit bus with his cane, according to Anderson.
Cane?
District Attorney Eddie Wyant was asked whether 70-year-old Ivar Rupley had an infirmity that made a cane necessary for him to walk about. He said he did not know.
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