2 La Habra police officers cleared in deadly New Year's Eve shooting

"This appears to be a justifiable homicide," Rackauckas said in a meeting with leaders of Southern California's Korean American community who were offered a rare explanation of the six-month investigation of the shooting conducted by his office.

Michael Cho, 25, was agitated and reacted in a bizarre manner when the officers, who had guns drawn, ordered him to drop the weapon, said Senior Asst. Dist. Atty. Jim Tanizaki, who helped supervise the investigation. Police had responded to calls that Cho was vandalizing cars.

Instead of complying with the officers' orders, Cho walked away. When an officer got in front of him, Cho raised the tire iron as if to hit him, Tanizaki said.

Both officers fired because they thought Cho "could and would hurt people," Tanizaki said.

After the nearly two-hour meeting with Rackauckas and his staff, Richard Choi Bertsch said the community was going to ask the U.S. Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation.

"This case really knocks sensibility out of my head," said Bertsch, of the Orange County Korean American Coalition. "It almost sounds like this presentation was why we could not charge" the officers.

After the meeting, others accused the police of using excessive force and asked how a vandalism call could result in a suspect being shot almost a dozen times. Prosecutors said the officers also had batons and pepper spray.

"The courts give some deference to police officers who have to make split-second decisions," Tanizaki said.

Though the investigation cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing, it was not an endorsement of their tactics, Rackauckas said. La Habra police instructed reporters to file a public records act request to get the officers' names. It released a brief statement offering condolences to Cho's family.

hgreza@latimes.com