SEATTLE (AP) – No criminal charges will be filed against a former Seattle police officer who shot and killed a Native American woodcarver while on duty in 2010, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

John T. Williams had just crossed a street while holding a knife and a block of wood when Officer Ian Birk got out of his patrol car, ordered him to drop the knife, and then shot him to death on Aug. 30, 2010.

The killing outraged many who saw it as an unnecessary use of force.

Birk resigned from the Police Department and the city paid $1.5 million to Williams’ family.

Prompted by the killing and other incidents, the Justice Department launched a formal civil rights investigation of the department and eventually determined that Seattle police engaged in a pattern of using excessive force, often against minorities.

The DOJ also conducted a criminal civil-rights investigation of Birk’s actions and announced Friday that there is not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully violated Williams’ rights.

“Prosecutors must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a law enforcement officer willfully deprived an individual of a constitutional right, meaning with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids,” the department said in a news release. “Accident, mistake, fear, negligence or bad judgment is not sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation.”

State officials reached a similar conclusion earlier. Even though a firearms review board found the shooting unjustified, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said the state could not charge Birk because the law required prosecutors to show the officer acted with malice and without good faith.

Attorney Tim Ford, a lawyer for the Williams family, told The Seattle Times the decision “is a great disappointment to his family,” which had hoped a jury would have the opportunity to hear the case.