[Read about the guilty verdict in the Laquan McDonald shooting]

Officer Ternand can return to active duty following the review board’s decision and receive back pay for the year that he has been suspended since the Independent Police Review Authority, a civilian watchdog body that has been renamed the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, found his shooting of Dakota “unprovoked” and “unwarranted.”

According to records reviewed by The Chicago Tribune, 23 complaints were lodged against Officer Ternand from mid-December 2010 to mid-December 2014. That put him among the top 12 officers with the most complaints in the 12,000-strong police force over that period, the newspaper reported. Officer Ternand was not disciplined for any of those allegations, which included claims of excessive force and illegal searches, according to The Tribune.

On Nov. 8, 2012, around 3:30 p.m., Officer Ternand, a tactical officer who focused on gang-related activities and crime on the city’s South Side, and his partner responded to a call about a burglary at a building, according to the board’s decision. It was a false alarm, but the officers noticed a person, later identified as Dakota, enter an alley with “a gun in his hand,” the document said.

Officer Ternand chased Dakota on foot, it said. According to his previous testimony quoted in the document, he commanded: “Police! Stop running — drop the gun!”

The officer testified that Dakota turned his head to the right and looked at him, then reached for his left side, the document said. The officer, believing “that Mr. Bright was still in possession of the gun,” shot him from about 50 feet away, “resulting in his death.”

After testimony from the officer, his wife, his partners and his commander, the majority of the board found Officer Ternand’s testimony that he had believed he was going to be shot by Dakota credible. It also found his credibility bolstered by the facts that he had been a tactical officer for five years, that he “was a highly decorated officer, and that his reputation for honesty was established by his character witnesses.”

The majority of the board said it was undisputed that the officer had shot Dakota, and it was “also undisputed that this shooting was a terrible tragedy.” The document said Officer Ternand “expressed sincere sympathy for the death of Mr. Bright,” but the board’s job was to decide whether the officer used excessive force.