The state Department of the Attorney General, and not the Honolulu prosecutor’s office, will determine whether two public safety officers will be charged with second-degree murder in separate deadly shootings earlier this year.

A spokesman for the city Department of the Prosecutor Attorney said the cases were forwarded Monday to the Criminal Justice Division at the Attorney General’s Office.

Potential felony cases involving state employees and/or that occur on state property are normally reviewed by the attorney general, according to Brooks Baehr, spokesman for the Honolulu prosecutor’s office.

The first shooting occurred Feb. 18 when Delmar Espejo, a 28-year-old disabled man, was killed at the state Capitol rotunda by a deputy sheriff from the state Department of Public Safety. Espejo was allegedly drinking an alcoholic beverage and scuffled with the sheriff after he refused to dispose of the drink container.

An autopsy report revealed Espejo was shot in the upper back at close range.

Baehr said the prosecutor’s office also turned over for review to the Attorney General’s Office the case in which Oahu Community Correctional Center inmate Maurice Arrisgado Jr. was shot and killed by a corrections officer in a Kalihi neighborhood after he escaped March 1.

Arrisgado was the son of retired Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado.

“We must avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest,” Baehr said in a text message.

Another reason the case was sent to the attorney general is because it involved an escapee from a state facility, which is overseen by the Department of Public Safety, he said.