Quebec’s prosecution office said Wednesday no charges will be laid against a Montreal police officer who shot and killed a man who was in distress during an incident in the city’s west end in 2020.

Two officers driving a police cruiser intercepted Sheffield Matthews, 41, when he was near the intersection of Côte-Saint-Luc Road and West Hill Avenue in Montreal's NDG borough just before 6 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2020. He was armed with a knife.

Matthews ignored repeated demands from police to drop his weapon and unsheathed it as officers got closer to him to diffuse the situation, according to a news release by the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales (DPCP).

At one point, he headed toward a city bus and officers feared he might harm others. One officer got out of the vehicle and fired two shots at Matthews, and another officer soon after fired three more. Only one of the bullets struck him fatally.

The prosecutor said the use of force was legal and justified since the threat of serious bodily harm or death was "imminent."

“Considering that the man was armed with a knife, that he refused to comply, that he approached the officer quickly and that he was less than one metre away from him, close enough to stab him, the officer had reasonable grounds to believe that the force apply to the man was necessary to protect him from serious bodily harm or death,” the DPCP statement stated.

The police intervention lasted only about two to three minutes, but it’s one that will have lasting impacts on those who were left behind.

Matthews was a father who, before his killing, volunteered at a senior’s home, said his friend, Sabrina Folland, in an emotional video published online after the shooting.

Folland said he struggled with poverty and would spend nearly all of his earnings to support his children, even if it meant sometimes he went hungry.

“I don't know what happened at this moment—if he was just consumed by sadness—but it wasn't Sheffield's true character at all. He was so far from that,” she said, describing him as ”thoughtful” and “kind.”

“We've all had that moment where we're consumed with sadness and darkness and anger and pain and we don't feel well.”