CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two Case Western Reserve University law school professors asked a recently-confirmed federal prosecutor to review a deadly police shooting involving a student from the United Arab Emirates.

Lewis R. Katz, the director of the law school's foreign graduate studies program, and Michael J. Benza, a senior instructor, said that the investigation into the Dec. 4 shooting of Saif Nasser Mubarak Alameri was "flawed" and suggested the student's ethnicity may have played a role in his death.

A Summit County grand jury on Thursday decided not to bring charges against Hudson police officer Ryan Doran, who shot Alameri five times during a struggle in a wooded area near Hudson Aurora Road.

The law school professors questioned Doran's account of the deadly shooting and asked Justin Herdman, who was confirmed Thursday as the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, to review the incident. Herdman will not take the oath and begin working until later this month.

A Case Western spokesman said the professors made the request on their own, rather than on behalf of the law school.

A U.S. Attorney's office spokesman declined to comment on the letter.

It's unclear whether the U.S. Attorney's Office will review the shooting. Herdman told cleveland.com that he's been given no directives, but U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has suggested the Justice Department will pursue fewer lawsuits against police departments and officers accused of violating civil rights.

Katz, in a phone interview Friday afternoon, questioned why Doran was shown on dashboard camera video entering the woods with his gun drawn. The officer was investigating a report of a man who ran from a car crash on the Ohio Turnpike near Interstate 480; investigators later determined Alameri drove his car at least 112 mph when he sideswiped another car and flipped his car onto its roof.

"The dash cam didn't demonstrate an officer who was there to help someone involved in a car crash," Katz said.

The professors also suggested Alameri might have suffered a concussion in the crash.

Doran told investigators that Alameri, who was unarmed, attacked him in the woods. Doran said Alameri knocked him to the ground, choked him and grabbed at his gun, according to investigative records released by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The professors questioned how Doran lost his grip on his gun during the struggle. Doran told investigators he fell when Alameri ran toward him.

The letter notes that Doran fired several shots at Alameri's leg while both men were on the ground. The letter questions why Doran then blindly fired several shots over his shoulder; Doran told officers he kept shooting because he felt Alameri on his back.

"The officer claimed he fired the first two shots at [Alameri's] leg, which would have made any additional shots to his head unnecessary," the professors said in the letter.

Test results showed the officer's DNA on Alameri's fingernails, and the Emirati man's DNA on Doran's uniform collar. Those test results were consistent with Doran's description of the physical struggle, according to the investigative records.

The professors also said in the letter that police may have known Alameri was Middle Eastern before Doran entered the woods.

"There is every reason to believe that fact motivated the nature of the officer's response," the professors said in the letter.

The Emirati Embassy said Thursday that it is "deeply disappointed" by the grand jury's decision not to bring charges against Doran. The embassy is reviewing other legal options, a spokesman said in a statement.

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