The Weld County District Attorney has cleared two Greeley police officers who shot a knife-wielding suicidal man 12 times when he came toward them in the Best Western Regency Hotel last month.

The Greeley Tribune reports the officers originally went on a welfare check on Brian Scott Croissant, 36, of Briggsdale, and found he had cut himself on the neck with a 13-inch knife and approached within five feet of the officers with it before they shot him to death.

A coroner’s report indicated Croissant’s blood alcohol level was .222 percent.

District Attorney Ken Buck concluded the officers "reasonably believed that it was necessary to defend themselves and others from the imminent use of deadly physical force."

Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner told the Tribune standard procedure in police agencies across the United States is "you shoot to stop the threat, and you continue to shoot until the threat ceases. When he's down, then you stop shooting."

According to reports, Croissant locked himself in a Fort Collins hotel room and threatened suicide last November.

"Fort Collins police didn't shoot him then, and it was the same type of situation," said Brian's father, Larry Croissant. "Those officers called his family to ask how to handle him. They didn't shoot him."

Following the incident, his family asked the court to commit Brian Croissant to a 45-day treatment center.

Croissant reportedly had worked on his family's cattle ranch, Croissant Red Angus in Briggsdale, until about a year ago, when he went to work in Greeley as a welder.

He was divorced and the father of three children.