A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to reinstate a wrongful death suit against the city of Tupelo, Mississippi, and one of its police officers in connection with the controversial 2016 shooting death of an African-American man following a chase.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said it saw no reason to disturb a 2017 ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock of the Northern District of Mississippi to dismiss on summary judgment the lawsuit, filed by the family of Antwun “Ronnie” Shumpert Sr.

Circuit Judge Jacques Wiener Jr., joined by Chief Judge Carl Stewart and Judge Stephen Higginson, agreed with Aycock's holding that Shumpert's estate failed to show that the defendants, the city of Tupelo and officer Tyler Cook, acted unconstitutionally,

The appeals court said there was ample evidence that Shumpert was acting violently at the time of his arrest.

“Because it is undisputed that Shumpert was violently resisting arrest and that Officer Cook did not know whether he was armed, plaintiffs have not met their burden of proof demonstrating that—under the discrete facts of this case—Officer Cook's use of … force was objectively reasonable,” Wiener said.

“United States Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit precedent is clear that an officer may use deadly force when a suspect poses a threat of serious harm to the officer or other individuals,” Wiener said.

Aycock had said, and the Fifth Circuit agreed, there was little or no proof that Cook acted improperly in firing his weapon at Shumpert, or proof that Tupelo failed to properly train Cook.

At the time of Aycock's ruling, Shumpert's relatives were quoted in media reports as saying they were “dumbfounded.”

According to the reports, Shumpert fled from a traffic stop on the night of June 18, 2016. Cook reportedly joined the search with his police dog. The dog discovered Shumpert at the rear of a house, in a crawl space, and forced Shumpert out. Cook claimed Shumpert tackled him. Cook said he was beaten by Shumpert and shot him four times as he was losing consciousness, the reports said. Shumpert later died from his wounds while hospitalized.

A state grand jury declined to charge Cook, despite claims by Shumpert's relatives that the shooting was unjustified, and that Shumpert was subdued or surrendering when he was shot.

“Officer Cook testified Shumpert ran from under the crawl space, tackled him, and repeatedly struck him in the head,” Wiener noted in the Fifth Circuit decision.