Prosecutors in Tennessee on Friday said they will not charge FBI agents in the death of Roy McGrath, who briefly served as the top aide to former Maryland governor Larry Hogan and became a fugitive until federal agents caught up with him this spring.

The Knox County District Attorney General's Office confirmed that an FBI agent fired at McGrath just as he shot himself in the head. An autopsy was unable to determine which of the gunshots caused his death, according to a release from prosecutors. "That agent acted in self-defense because he had a reasonable belief that McGrath posed a threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury," the release said.

The confrontation on April 3, just outside Knoxville, Tenn., came after a 21-day search that began when McGrath did not show up for a scheduled three-week federal trial in Baltimore on wire fraud and embezzlement charges. Those close to McGrath voiced concern for his welfare, fearing what ultimately would unfold.

According to the release, the FBI Baltimore field office had asked agents in Knoxville to arrest McGrath, telling them he was at a Costco. The agents who responded found his vehicle and attempted a traffic stop while he left the parking lot. McGrath kept driving despite the lights and sirens behind him, according to the release, until he was boxed in between an Advanced Auto Parts and a Sonic Drive-In.

The release said when agents ordered McGrath to put his hands out of the window, he did not and said, "I have a gun, and it's loaded," raising a handgun to his right temple. "The way McGrath held the handgun placed agents within the trajectory of McGrath's gun causing one agent to believe McGrath posed a threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury to himself and other agents," the release said. "Simultaneously, McGrath fired his gun striking his right temple, and the agent fired one round striking McGrath's left cheek."

Prosecutors, who did not make public the names of the agents, did not review the file to determine if there were any "violations of civil law or violations of departmental policies and procedures," according to the release, which was first reported by the Baltimore Banner. FBI officials have declined to release further information on the confrontation, saying doing so would hamper their investigation. In a statement Friday, FBI officials said they still are investigating.

McGrath was slated to face federal and state charges stemming from alleged financial improprieties as the head of the Maryland Environmental Service, an independent state agency, starting March 13, a day after his last contact with his lawyer. His failure to show up at federal court that morning sparked a multi-state search for a man whom colleagues described as meticulous and strait-laced.

With his lifelong interest in politics, McGrath rose to become one of the most trusted advisers to Hogan, until the Baltimore Sun broke news of a $233,000 severance he had received in 2020 upon leaving the Maryland Environmental Service to become chief of staff for the Republican governor.

The revelation prompted legislative hearings that Hogan once labeled a "witch hunt" in a message to McGrath, but it also led to a break between the two men. "This is devastating my life," McGrath told Hogan in a private text message in 2020, according to an image obtained by The Washington Post. McGrath maintained that Hogan approved the severance package, but prosecutors alleged he misled officials to obtain the payout.

The former governor has cooperated with law enforcement, has not been accused of any crime and has repeatedly denied knowledge of it. "Sadly Roy McGrath's sense of betrayal led him to a place of darkness that resulted in his believing that ending his life was the only way out," Joseph Murtha, the lawyer for McGrath, said in an email Friday.