DENVER -- Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said Wednesday that two patrol officers were justified in shooting a suspected car thief who drove at an officer ordering him to stop.

The suspect, Joseph Leo Fresquez, was arrested after fleeing the shooting scene March 7 when he walked into St. Joseph Hospital with gunshot wounds in his arm and chest, Morrissey recounted in his decision letter to Police Chief Gerald Whitman.

Morrissey concluded that Officers Steven Sloan and Raul Velasquez were justified in firing because they had a reasonable belief the suspect aiming the speeding car at Sloan might injure or kill the officer.

"As the officers began to approach Fresquez at gunpoint with the intent to take him into custody, Fresquez took the non-compliant, aggressive, life-threatening actions described in this letter," Morrissey conclude. "These actions culminated in Fresquez intentionally driving directly at Officer Sloan who attempted to move laterally to escape Fresquez’s assault."

Just before the shooting, three officers responded about 5 p.m. to a liquor store at Federal Boulevard and West Ellsworth Avenue after a woman called 911 to report a man driving a Subaru Legacy had just run her off the road and he was parked outside a medical marijuana dispensary next to the liquor store.

A police dispatcher radioed that the Subaru was reported stolen earlier in the day.

Arriving in separate patrol cars, Sloan, Velasquez and Officer Charles Jones spotted the suspect in the Subaru buying cigarettes at the liquor store's drive-up window. The officers parked their vehicles around the stolen car in an effort to block escape routes, the decision letter stated.

At the time of this incident, Fresquez was not only allegedly driving a stolen car, Morrissey wrote, he faced an outstanding warrant for a parole violation for another auto theft case.

Following police training for a suspected felony vehicle stop, Morrissey wrote, the officers drew their service pistols and loudly ordered Fresquez to stop and shut off the car.

Instead, the suspect briefly drove slightly forward, then threw the Subaru in reverse, ramming into a silver Chevrolet Cobalt behind him in the drive-up line, Morrissey wrote. The impact forced the stunned Chevy driver to bail out while the car was still rolling backward.

The suspect then accelerated forward, steering sharply to the right between two police cars and "aiming at Officer Sloan," Morrissey wrote.

"With Fresquez tracking him [with the car], Officer Sloan began firing through the front windshield at Fresquez," Morrissey wrote. "Officer Sloan fired his final shot as Fresquez struck him with the right front quarter panel, brushing his lower body and breaking the passenger-side mirror of the Subaru."

Sloan "pushed away from the vehicle as it passed by him. These actions all occurred in rapid succession, in just seconds," Morrissey wrote.

Officer Velasquez also fired at the advancing car an instant after Officer Sloan began firing. But Velasquez stopped shooting because Sloan came into his line of fire, the letter stated. Officer Jones did not shoot because Sloan was also in his line of fire.

The wounded Fresquez sped away, and police found the abandoned Subaru a few minutes later with its engine still running and blood inside. It was covered with bullet strikes.

Investigators couldn't confirm who fired the shots that hit Fresquez, because patient confidentiality laws limited access to his medical records. But the shooting analysis indicated Fresquez was likely struck by at least a single shot from each officer, Morrissey wrote.

The letter said the two officers' videotaped statements to investigators were corroborated by witnesses' accounts of the shooting and physical evidence.

An internal police department review of the officer-involved shooting will also be conducted.