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Davis, Calif. • Prosecutors do not plan to file criminal charges against the University of California, Davis police officers who doused students and alumni with pepper spray during a campus protest last November.
The Yolo County District Attorney's office announced in a statement issued Wednesday that it had concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that the use of force was illegal.
The statement says prosecutors relied on facts included in an independent report UC Davis commissioned on the incident. Among them was the finding that the officers perceived they were dealing with a hostile mob and needed to spray the protesters to clear a path to safety.
John Pike, the former campus police lieutenant who was videotaped pepper-spraying the protesters, tells The Sacramento Bee he is relieved by the D.A.'s decision.