HASTINGS — A man convicted of killing a police officer in the Twin Cities last summer has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Uniformed officers and dozens of others packed into a Dakota County courtroom Wednesday morning where Brian Fitch Sr. was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was found guilty Monday of fatally shooting Scott Patrick, a 47-year-old Mendota Heights officer who had stopped Fitch last July in West St. Paul.

Fitch, with his hands bound, maintained his innocence before he was sentenced. Fitch was also sentenced to 216 months for each of three attempted murder charges. He was convicted of shooting at three St. Paul police officers who arrested him.

During closing arguments on Monday, prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz told jurors that the totality of the evidence should lead them to a “reasonable and rational conclusion” that Fitch killed Patrick.

Fitch was on the run and had a warrant out for his arrest when Patrick pulled him over, Prokopowicz said. Fitch made good on a threat he told his girlfriend the night before: If a police officer stopped him, he was going to shoot, the prosecutor argued.

But Fitch’s attorney, Lauri Traub, attacked eyewitness descriptions of the killer, the timeline of events surrounding the shooting of Patrick and the gun evidence, according to the newspaper.

She also argued that his actions during his arrest fell short of the standard for attempted murder.