Officers will not be charged in California mistaken identity shooting

(Reuters) - Eight police officers who mistakenly shot at a mother and daughter delivering newspapers during the manhunt for cop-killer Christopher Dorner three years ago will not be charged for their actions, prosecutors in Los Angeles said on Wednesday.

Emma Hernandez, 71, was shot twice in the back and her daughter, Margie Carranza, 47, suffered hand injuries from flying debris when officers opened fire on them in February of 2013 after mistaking their blue Toyota truck for the gray Nissan that Dorner was driving.

The women previously reached a $4.2 million legal settlement with the city.

Dorner, a former Los Angeles police officer accused of killing four people including the daughter of a former Los Angeles Police Department captain, her fiance and a Riverside police officer, had threatened the family of another LAPD captain who lived on the same street where the women were delivering papers, according to a report by investigators released on Wednesday by the Los Angeles district attorney, Jackie Lacey.

After police had received information that Dorner might be on his way to kill the family of LAPD Captain Justin Eisenberg and were stationed at his house, Hernandez and her daughter turned onto his street to deliver papers, the report said.

Mistakenly believing the women's truck to be Dorner's, officers assigned to protect Eisenberg's house unleashed a hail of bullets, wounding the two women.

Lacey's office said Wednesday that there was insufficient admissible evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the eight officers had not acted in self-defense or in the defense of others.

As a result, the district attorney said in a news release, her office would not file charges against the officers.

Dorner, who targeted police officers and their families after he was fired by the LAPD, shot himself in the head and died on Feb. 12, 2013, after a gunfight and fiery standoff with officers in the mountains above Los Angeles.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Leslie Adler)