Butler County's District Attorney has cleared state troopers involved in two separate shootings this year.

“I made a determination in each of these cases that the shootings were justified and that no criminal charges were warranted in either case,” District Attorney Richard Goldinger wrote via email.

“In each instance, we had armed individuals pointing firearms at police officers. The officers used the force necessary to overcome the force they were facing,” Goldinger said.

In the first shooting, police killed Walter Wiemann, 73, during an armed standoff on Nursery Road in Forward Township.

According to earlier reports, police on Sept. 18. were called at 11:47 a.m. to the home for a man “making threats to himself, others and police responders,” according to a police report.

The 911 log said the man, later identified as Wiemann, reportedly had dementia and “might be armed.”

The second case was a nonfatal meeting with police. During the early morning hours of Oct. 21, police responding to a report about a suicidal woman were confronted by a shotgun-toting Brittany Ann Kitner at her apartment on New Castle Road. After a brief standoff, at least one officer shot Kitner in the thigh, according to earlier reports.

In all events where someone is shot by state police, several layers of investigation take place.

The state police major case unit investigates andthe Pennsylvania State Police Department's Internal Affairs Division conducts its own investigation.

In Butler County, The findings of the separate investigations are then turned over to Goldinger, who ultimately determines if the shooting was justified or if criminal charges are warranted.