A Southwestern Oregon Community College student suspected of robbing an area bank had a Sharpie pen that was misidentified as a knife when he was shot and killed Wednesday by a Coos Bay Police officer, according to officials investigating the incident.

Coos County Chief Deputy District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said he believed Detective Hugo Hatzel had no way of knowing that 34-year-old Steven Lile Garner was carrying a large pen and not a knife when he fired four rounds after ordering the man to get on the ground.

A final determination on whether to pursue a case against the officer has yet to be made, but Frasier said he has seen no evidence indicating Hatzel acted improperly and added he believed the shooting is justifiable.

"Based upon what I'm seeing so far, I don't see that he had a choice," Frasier said during a press conference Thursday afternoon in Coos Bay City Hall.

Police believe that on May 6, Garner entered the Wells Fargo bank in downtown Coos Bay and passed a note demanding money and threatening that he had a weapon, eventually escaping with $891. Officers on Wednesday went to Southwestern to serve an arrest warrant on Garner, who led police on a foot chase before the fatal shooting near the college's main parking lot. Frasier said eleven $1 bills were recovered near the location where Garner was seen running through campus but the bills could not be positively identified as part of the stolen loot because serial numbers were not recorded.

Garner was pulled over in October and charged by police with driving under the influence of intoxicants and possession of methamphetamine. He was scheduled to attend a pre-trial hearing on June 1 but the charges were dismissed Wednesday due to his death. He had no other criminal record.

Coos Bay Police Chief Eura Washburn said Hatzel has been an exemplary police officer with strong community ties who has maintained good relationships even with those he's arrested in the past. Hatzel, 34, began working in Coos Bay in 2002 and has never been involved in a work-related shooting. The son of a Coos County Sheriff's deputy, Hatzel entered law enforcement with the county in 1996 and rose through the ranks with a distinguished record.

"What happened (Wednesday) was a sudden and traumatic turn in his career," Washburn said.

The last officer-involved shooting in Coos Bay occurred in 1996. No one was killed in that year's incident. The last fatality occurring during a police shooting was in 1988.

Coos Bay officers are equipped with non-lethal weapons, including a disabling spray, but Washburn said an officer must determine whether to use a gun by gauging the perceived level of threat being posed.

"You don't take spray to a knife fight, or what is perceived to be that," she said, adding that Wednesday's incident occurred in a matter of seconds and left little time for the officer to make a choice about firing his weapon.

Washburn added that police training teaches officers that a suspect wielding a knife within 21 feet of an officer is considered within lethal distance.

Hatzel is currently being represented by counsel with the Coos Bay Police Officer's Association, a common procedure following an officer-involved shooting. Frasier said a full interview will be conducted Saturday.

Union attorney John Hoag, who represents Hatzel, said he believes the investigation will show that Garner chose to charge toward the officer even when he had other routes of escape open to him.

"The fact of the matter is, in this country, well over 95 percent of the police shootings are justified," Hoag said. "In that sense, there is nothing unusual about this one."

Hoag said Coos Bay was one of the first departments in Oregon to develop a comprehensive officer-involved shooting process that supports police officers. Hoag said the process, which in part entails placing the officer involved on paid administrative leave and ensuring that he has access to union counsel, is essential in ensuring that officers return to duty well-adjusted.

"When you have to take an action that can take a human life, it changes you fundamentally," Hoag said. "It extracts a price from you. This is something that occurs in war and any situation in law enforcement. It is very tough for people to work through that."

Hoag said the process is not adversarial but cooperative and that it is intended to ensure all the facts are presented for the public in a competent manner.

The investigation also will address the results of an autopsy that was conducted Thursday morning. Toxicological samples were taken but it will be approximately three weeks before those results are known.

North Bend Police Chief Steve Scibelli said his department's investigation will take at least that long before it reaches a conclusion. A final ruling on the shooting will then be determined by the District's Attorney's Office.

"We still have a lot to do," he said. "We have a lot more witnesses to interview."