D.A. rules officer shooting justified

ALBUQUREQUE (KRQE) - The district attorney's office has ruled an officer involved shooting in Albuquerque last year was justified.
 
Three people broke into the catholic center, tied up and beat a security guard then stole a safe.

When officers arrived they say suspect Mark Beechum opened fire.

Officer Mario Perez fired back killing him.

In January district court judges ordered a change in the way officer involved shootings are handled.
 
Instead of having a grand jury determine if they are justified, the D.A.'s office must make that determination.
 
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg says while she's confident her office will make sound decisions, she liked the public being involved.

”When you have 12 citizen who don't have a dog in the fight so to speak who can review our  decision, they could disagree could see something we don't see because they are more objective I thought that was real nice,’ Brandenburg said.
 
Brandenburg says in the new process they do not have subpoena power and can't force people to testify like the grand jury could.
 
One thing they did add was input from the family of the person shot.