There will be no charges for the RCMP officer who fatally shot Peter de Groot, a 45-year-old farmer who spent days evading police in the B.C. Interior back in 2014.

The province's police watchdog announced Thursday it has cleared the unnamed officer of wrongdoing, a process that began immediately after de Groot's death but took nearly three and a half years to complete.

The Independent Investigations Office blamed the lengthy delays in part on conflicting pathologists reports about whether de Groot was shot in the back or front, a dispute that had major implications on the officer's culpability.