SAN DIEGO -- Two patrolmen acted within the law when they fatally shot a mentally ill man who backed a car toward them at his mother's Del Mar Heights home following a lengthy road chase two summers ago, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis concluded in a ruling released Friday.

San Diego police Officers Benjamin Douglas and Brian Lenahan said they were standing on opposite sides of 35-year-old Alan Jay Kosakoff's car and opened fire when he accelerated in reverse inside the garage of the Half Moon Bay Drive house about 12:35 a.m. on Aug. 25, 2007.

Kosakoff, who had been diagnosed with psychosis and mood disorders, suffered one bullet wound to his head and another to his right leg. He died in a hospital six weeks later.

Douglas and Lenahan told investigators they believed that Kosakoff's actions in the moments before the shooting were endangering their lives and that of a third officer in the crowded garage, where another car was parked next to the suspect's.

Under California law, peace officers may use lethal force to protect themselves and others from threats of death or great bodily injury, Dumanis noted in her ruling.

The chaotic events inside the garage unfolded in a matter of a seconds, leaving the officers with scant time to weigh their options, according to the district attorney.

"As a result, and based on the events as they unfolded, the officers' state(s) of mind at the time they decided to fire, the time frame of the shooting and Mr. Kosakoff's ability or inability to perceive and comprehend the uniformed officers' commands, Officers Lenahan and Douglas bear no criminal liability for their actions," Dumanis wrote in a letter to San Diego police Chief William Lansdowne.