Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has concluded that the police officer who shot and killed a York woman almost a year ago in South Berwick was justified in using deadly force.

Karin Moller, 55, was killed on Dec. 4, 2014, as she advanced toward police with her gun pointed at officers, according to the attorney general’s report, released Tuesday. Two officers fired at Moller as she walked toward them, and one hit her, the report said.

Karin Moller

Officers had gone to Moller’s home around noon after being told by a dispatcher that Moller had a gun to her head and was threatening to shoot anyone who tried to bring her to a hospital, the report said.

A doctor, coached by a behavioral specialist, spent 50 minutes on the telephone with Moller trying to persuade her to surrender and be taken to the hospital, but she refused, the report said. Moller told the doctor that she hoped police would kill her. She also told the doctor she had taken anti-anxiety medication.

About an hour after the initial call, Moller got into her car and left the house, driving toward South Berwick.

York police Detective John Lizanecz used a spike mat to disable Moller’s car. After Moller drove over it, he followed her in a cruiser, the report said. South Berwick police Lt. Christopher Burbank joined the pursuit.

Moller stopped in the middle of Ogunquit Road, got out and advanced at the officers holding a gun in two hands and pointing it at them, the report said.

Burbank fired six rounds from his handgun and Lizanecz fired one from his rifle, but Moller continued to advance, the report said, walking a total of 64 feet from her car toward the officers. She got as close as 37 feet from Burbank.

Lizanecz fired more rounds – a total of seven – one of which hit Moller in the chest and knocked her to the pavement, the report said.

Moller was taken to a hospital in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy by the New Hampshire Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Moller died of a single shot from a high-powered rifle.

Mills determined that at the time the two officers fired, they reasonably believed that Moller was threatening them with unlawful deadly force and that deadly force was needed to protect themselves and others who might be within range of Moller’s weapon.

Moller was shot about a quarter-mile from the small house she shared with her father, Ronald. She was single, had no children, and had worked as a nanny and at the Ethan Allen furniture store in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After the shooting, friends recalled Moller as a caring and supportive person who showed no signs of mental health problems.