Below: Audio from Sheriff Tom Allman’s Saturday press conference in Fort Bragg on law enforcement’s final confrontation with murder suspect and fugitive Aaron Bassler. A team from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office came upon Bassler in the woods about six miles out of Fort Bragg. The team was approximately 40 yards away from Bassler when they spotted him. They immediately fired seven shots at the suspect, killing him.

In response to a question from the Reuters news agency, Allman defended the use of lethal force against Bassler despite the fact that no official “shoot-to-kill” order had been applied in the case. He cited the Supreme Court case Tennessee v. Garner, which, in the words of Wikipedia, rules that an officer “may use deadly force only to prevent escape if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.” Bassler had exchanged fire with law enforcement two days prior to Saturday’s engagement.

Allman said that DNA evidence at the scene of the Matthew Coleman murder clearly points to Bassler in that case, as well as at the shooting of Fort Bragg Councilmember Jere Melo.

Once again, audio from the press conference was posted by David Gurney of Noyo News.