Police administrators have cleared Officer Jesse Dickensheets, concurring with a grand jury investigation that the veteran officer acted properly when he shot and killed a disoriented man who approached him and his partner with a knife and what resembled a semi-automatic pistol.

Dickensheets will return to his overnight patrol assignment "as soon as he gets back from his vacation," said his supervisor, Capt. Thomas Didone, commander of the 5th District station in Germantown.

Messages left for Dickensheets were not returned.

On Aug. 27, a Montgomery County grand jury cleared Dickensheets in the fatal shooting of a Germantown man. Days later, Montgomery County Police decided Dickensheets was ready to resume his midnight patrol assignment, Didone said. Dickensheets shot and killed Hernandez, 39, of Germantown around 2:40 a.m. July 29, according to police.

Messages left for Juanita Roseboro, a former girlfriend of Hernandez and mother of his 7-year-old son, were not returned.

The incident began when Dickensheets and Officer Ana Hester responded to a disconnected 911 call on Eagle's Nest Court, according to police. The officers found Hernandez holding a carving knife and a silver and black BB gun that resembled a semi-automatic handgun. Witnesses told police they heard Dickensheets order Hernandez to drop his weapon.

Hernandez, who was standing outside an apartment when he was shot twice, was pronounced dead at the scene. Hester was cleared shortly after the incident and returned to patrol Aug. 10.

The Fraternal Order of Police expected Dickensheets would be cleared, said Walt Bader, a member of the Board of Directors for the FOP's Lodge #35 in Montgomery Village.

Dealing with a fatal shooting isn't like television, Bader said.

"It's something you live with and die with," he said. "That's the nature of the job. That's why the taxpayers give us guns."

Didone said he is glad Dickensheets has been cleared to return to work.

"It's critically important that our officers working our midnight shift are very capable to do their job well," Didone said. "It's very important because there are so few officers out there at that time."