PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) – An investigation determined that two police officers were justified when they shot and killed a teenage robbery suspect earlier this year as he allegedly drove his car toward them.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz, who issued the report on Thursday, said the officers fired at the car being driven by 16-year-old Anthony McGrath only after he ignored their orders to stop. The officers were in the path of the vehicle after chasing after him through downtown in the early morning hours of Jan. 10.

Cruz also told reporters that McGrath’s blood-alcohol level was above the level at which a minor can be prosecuted for driving under the influence.

McGrath was being chased by officers after allegedly breaking into a store.

A six-week investigation concluded the officers – Edwin Almeida and Richard Tavares – had reason to believe their lives were in immediate danger. Investigators found that one of the officers who shot at McGrath was in the path of the teen’s car when it began to accelerate. The officers fired only after their orders for McGrath to halt were ignored, Cruz said.

Police Chief Robert Pomeroy, who joined Cruz at a news conference to announce the findings, said many things went wrong that night.

“Unfortunately,” he added, “A lot of those things were in Mr. McGrath’s control.”

The entire episode lasted five minutes – from the break-in call to the shooting.

One bullet penetrated McGrath’s heart and lung and a second hit his arm, according to an autopsy.

The autopsy found McGrath had a blood-alcohol level of 0.04 percent, above the 0.02 level at which a minor can be prosecuted for driving under the influence under Massachusetts law, Cruz said.

Almeida and Tavares surrendered their weapons and were placed on paid leave after the shooting. They now will return to their jobs in this town about 40 miles south of Boston.

No one answered a phone listing Thursday for McGrath’s mother, who expressed outrage after the shooting. Denise McGrath said at the time of the shooting her son wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.

“Tony wasn’t trying to run anyone over. He was trying to get away. He didn’t have it in him to try to hurt anyone. He was a kid,” she said at the time.

Plymouth’s use-of-force policy discourages, but doesn’t prohibit, officers from shooting at moving vehicles, according to documents released last month. The policy, which has been in effect since 2000, states that officers “shall not discharge a firearm at a moving or fleeing vehicle unless any occupant is using or threatening to use deadly force.”

It says that under such circumstances “officers should be aware of the potential inability of a bullet to penetrate metal or glass surfaces of an automobile and the likelihood of ricocheting bullets causing injury to innocent persons. Officers should not shoot when the vehicle is no longer an imminent threat.”