[chris]

A 15-year-old boy who put on body armor, took his father's .45-caliber handgun and fired at officers was shot and killed by police in Magna, Utah, on the morning of March 18, 2012, authorities said.

The boy, identified as Sean Morrison, left his home in the Salt Lake County township shortly after 8:30 a.m. that Sunday, his mother told a 911 dispatcher. She said he was wearing a bulletproof vest, a black trench coat and a ski mask, and that he had taken the gun and was leaving so that he would not hurt anyone inside the house, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Unified Police officers who responded found Morrison walking through the neighborhood with the handgun, investigators said. He fired several shots at the first officer to arrive, Phillip Snyder, and later fired at a second officer before barricading himself behind a parked vehicle, according to a later review of the shooting.

Officers repeatedly ordered Morrison to drop the weapon, which he refused to do, the district attorney's office said. When he opened fire again in the street, officers Brian Todd and Bryan Madsen returned fire and struck him at least four times. Morrison was taken to Pioneer Valley Hospital, where he died of a gunshot wound to the chest. The confrontation lasted about 20 minutes, witnesses said.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder described Morrison as "a very troubled and problematic youth" and said officers had been called to the family's home before. Relatives said the boy, who was homeschooled, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and autism and had recently been in counseling and treated for depression. His mother said that five days before the shooting he had been attacked and cut by two other boys.

A recording of the 911 call and the police radio traffic from that morning was later posted by an online dispatch archive.

On April 24, 2012, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill ruled that Todd and Madsen were legally justified in using deadly force. Gill wrote that both officers were trying to arrest Morrison "while he was actively shooting his firearm at them." No charges were filed.