THE LAST WORD:

Shaun Vilan was shot and killed and his friend Taylor Willis was wounded March 8 when they got into a scuffle with Costa Mesa police Officer Scott Dibble in Temecula.

But no one will ever be charged in connection with the shooting.

It’s not every day someone gets shot and killed and no one gets punished for it.

But in this case it was because investigators concluded that the nine-year veteran cop acted in self-defense when the two men attacked him 45 minutes after an argument about Dibble mistakenly patting the fanny of a woman in Vilan’s group of friends. After that argument it appeared hot tempers had cooled, but obviously not.

So, tragically, a man’s life ended at 30 years old over what, certainly in hindsight, was a trivial disagreement.

Dibble, meanwhile, has to live with the awful reality of having to end someone’s life, something every good cop dreads — even when it’s justified.