Police officers who shot and killed a Prince Albert man last year were left with no other options when the 26-year-old man confronted them with a knife, a jury looking into the death concluded this week.

“It certainly was a situation that was very, very unfortunate, but I think the jury saw from the evidence it was unavoidable,” said Mitchell Holash, a lawyer for the Prince Albert Police Service.

Ryan Natomagan-Nelson was fatally shot by police July 9, 2013.

Officers were called to a home in Prince Albert when witnesses saw Natomagan punch his girlfriend.

The officers testified Natomagan-Nelson lunged at them with a knife, and that's when they shot him.

“The minimal amount of shots were fired. The police waited until the very last minute, almost to the point that they had endangered their own lives — that was the testimony from the use of force expert,” Holash said.

The six-person jury examining Natomagan-Nelson’s death gave no recommendations to prevent future incidents from occurring.

“They obviously came to the conclusion there was nothing they could find in the evidence. There was nothing that supported a recommendation, and I respect that,” said coroner’s counsel Alma Wiebe.

The inquiry was meant to examine the event but not to find fault or blame.

Natomagan-Nelson's aunt Shirley Nelson read a short statement to the media on behalf of the family after the coroner’s inquest wrapped up.

"We are sorry that things came out the way it happened. Shots were fired, a person died, we cannot bring anyone back from the dead so we have to do our best to move on," she said.

The two officers involved in the shooting both took a one-month leave following the incident. They underwent psychiatric evaluations before they returned to work.

“As one of the officers testified this is something that, every morning and every evening, is on his mind and impacts officers tremendously when there is a lethal use of force,” said Holash.

The inquiry served as an opportunity for the public to understand exactly what rules govern use of force by police, Holash added.

--- with files from the Canadian Press