The State Attorney’s Office clears

an Orlando police officer of any criminal wrongding after he shot into a vehicle that was driving toward him.

An Orlando police officer has been cleared by the State Attorney’s Office of any criminal wrongdoing when he shot into a vehicle coming toward him.

Officer Jonathan Mills, a three-year veteran, conducted a traffic stop on a Dodge Charger about midnight Jan. 16 in the 5100 block of North Lane in Pine Hills.

Mills’ body-camera video showed he got out of his vehicle and yelled for the driver, Trevon Lamons, to stop.

Officers then started hitting the vehicle with what appear to be batons while yelling, “Put your hands up.” The vehicle backed into a parked vehicle before moving forward toward Mills.

Mills fired four shots into the vehicle, records show. Lamons drove off before crashing into a vacant home on Stony Brook Lane. He and two other suspects fled on foot but were caught.

“All I saw was the nose coming right at me and that’s when I discharged my weapon at the driver’s side,” Mills told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigated the shooting. “He’s gonna try to run me over.”

Lamons, 18, was shot but not seriously injured.

He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, fleeing and eluding law enforcement, grand theft and resisting an officer without violence. He is awaiting trial.

Prosecutors sent Orlando police Chief John Mina a letter Sept. 7 saying charges were not warranted against Mills.

“There is no evidence that Officer Jonathan Mills committed intentional misconduct or acted with any degree of malice,” said Chief Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane Burdick. “To the contrary, the evidence suggests he acted in self-defense with force he believed reasonably necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself.”

It was one of seven Orlando police officer-involved shootings this year.