No criminal charges will be filed against a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a suspected bank robber who apparently was reaching for a gun, the county prosecutor’s office said Feb. 17.

John Patrick Steinbaugh, 45, was killed Sept. 24 in the parking lot of a McDonald’s restaurant in the 500 block of 128th Street SW west of Mill Creek.

The shooting happened shortly after an armed robbery at a Washington Mutual Bank branch in a Fred Meyer store at 12906 Bothell-Everett Highway.

Everett police detectives conducted the shooting investigation, which was “thorough and exhaustive,” said Mark Roe, chief criminal deputy prosecutor. It included a review of the sights and sounds of a videotape from a police squad car.

“Responding deputies were aware that (the suspect) had displayed a handgun during the bank robbery,” Roe said. Many innocent restaurant patrons, including children, were in danger, he said.

Both officers and restaurant patrons said Steinbaugh was reaching for something in his waistband as deputes yelled for him to put up his hands, Roe said.

“Instead, (Steinbaugh) reached for what a deputy described as a Desert Eagle handgun in the waistband of his pants. … The sheriff’s deputy then fired two rounds from his rifle,” killing Steinbaugh, Roe said.

A woman in the suspect’s car said Steinbaugh was trying to surrender at the time he was shot. Deputies and other witnesses, as well as the physical evidence, contradicted her statement, Roe said.

The videotape captured the commands for Steinbaugh to give up, as well as a warning that he was going for a gun, Roe said.

“It appears that the deputy’s actions were completely appropriate under the circumstances, though the loss of life is still tragic,” Roe said.

The deputy, who has not been named by the prosecutor or the sheriff’s office, was put on administrative leave for a time after the shooting. He later returned to patrol duty, the sheriff’s office reported.

Police recovered more than $10,000 in cash taken in the bank robbery and a replica of a Desert Eagle pistol.