For the first time in Colorado’s history, a governor has called for an independent investigation into a police shooting as the case of a Colorado Springs teenager who was shot in the back and killed by officers as he ran from them continues to make national news.

Gov. Jared Polis requested Thursday that an agency outside of Colorado Springs and El Paso County be part of the investigatory process. He did not specify which agency or prosecutor should step in or at what point in the investigation anyone should intervene.

“Our nation is grappling with difficult challenges concerning race and how we treat one another,” Polis said at a news conference in Denver. “It is more important now at this moment in time that our law enforcement agencies go above and beyond to maintain public trust and confidence.”

In an officer-involved shooting in Colorado, a police agency doesn’t investigate itself. In this case, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office investigated the police department’s officers and turned over its findings to 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May. He will make a decision on whether to file criminal charges against the officers; the police department will determine whether they violated department policy.

No other Colorado governor has ever made such a request, longtime prosecutors and experts said, and the governor’s decision quickly incited backlash from district attorneys and the mayor of Colorado Springs, who accused the governor of playing politics.

“It’s a pretty unorthodox approach,” said Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.

De’Von Bailey’s family and their supporters protested Thursday evening outside the Colorado Springs Police Department’s headquarters demanding an outside investigation and applauded the governor’s decision. The family’s attorney, Mari Newman, offered a more exact way to bring outside oversight to the process.

Newman demanded that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation take over the investigation into the shooting and that the state attorney general’s office decide whether the officers should be charged. She and others expressed frustration with how the city and county have handled the investigation.

“We are not disposable! We are not disposable!” community members chanted at the end of the conference.

Bailey died Aug. 3 after being shot three times in the back and once in the right arm. Police had been responding to a report of an armed robbery when they stopped Bailey and another teenager on the street. As an officer approached Bailey to pat him down, he ran.

Colorado Springs police released body camera video that showed two officers shooting Bailey in the back as he ran from them, ignoring their commands to put his hands up.

The officers found a gun on Bailey after he was shot and handcuffed.

“Given how the events have unfolded surrounding the death of De’Von Bailey, including of course the public details and the video, which I have seen … and the questions that have been raised by the general public and members of our minority communities,” Polis said, “I hope that El Paso County takes steps above and beyond those that are legally required to maximize the public trust in the objective investigation.”

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers criticized the governor’s decision, stating that Polis “cites no legal or ethical basis” that May recuse himself from the investigation and called the decision “politically motivated.” Suthers previously supported the release of the body camera footage.

“I’m concerned that he suggests a precedence with impacts he has not yet considered and does not understand, to include undermining the will of the people, who elected the public officials charged with carrying out legal responsibilities,” Suthers said in a statement.

In a series of posts on Twitter, May defended his office and said he was committed to a thorough and fair review. He said his office has been in contact with Bailey’s family and will keep them updated on their investigation. May’s office did not return a call or email Thursday afternoon from The Denver Post requesting an interview.

The Colorado District Attorneys’ Council interpreted Polis’ statement as a request that May recuse himself from the investigation and turn the decision of whether to charge the officers to another district attorney’s office.

May would need a judge’s approval to recuse himself from the case and move it to another jurisdiction, said Michael Rourke, president of the District Attorneys’ Council and the Weld County district attorney. Prosecutors commonly file such requests if there is a conflict of interest in a case, like if a staff member in the office is charged with a crime or is a victim. Rourke said he did not know of any time when a prosecutor has asked another jurisdiction to investigate a shooting by police and said that Polis’s statement unfairly casts doubt on May’s credibility.

“The governor for some reason felt compelled to respond to the media coverage of this situation and unfortunately I think he is responding without a full understanding of how officer-involved shooting investigations are done in this state,” Rourke said.

A 2015 law mandated that law enforcement agencies don’t investigate their own shootings. Instead, another agency or a team composed of officers from a mixture of agencies take on the case. But the law doesn’t require charging decisions to be moved to a different jurisdiction.

Bailey’s family has said the El Paso County sheriff and the district attorney cannot conduct an impartial investigation because they work closely with the Colorado Springs Police Department on other criminal investigations.

Stan Garnett, former Boulder County district attorney, said district attorneys are capable of thorough, unbiased decisions regarding police shootings even though prosecutors and police work together on other cases.

“We have to be very careful that these sorts of investigations are not passed around for political reasons,” Garnett said. “I’m not saying it should never happen, but I think people casually call for it too often.”

Polis said he hasn’t spoken to Bailey’s family, but he did have conversations with the mayor of Colorado Springs as well as state Attorney General Phil Weiser.