The East Portland insurance agent who shot and killed a homeless Portlander last month won’t be prosecuted, police announced today.
A Multnomah County grand jury decided that Charlie Win Chan, owner of Golden Key Insurance near SE 82nd and Foster, was justified in killing Jason Gerald Petersen on February 20.
Police have said Petersen, who was 32 and battling schizophrenia, was storing belongings outside of Chan’s business, and became upset when the man threw them away. In details first released with today’s announcement, police say that “Chan stated that Petersen threatened to kill him and burn down his business.”
Petersen left, and Chan followed him outside roughly five minutes later with a gun, police say. Chan, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, told authorities Petersen “attacked him,” so he shot the man once in the abdomen, killing him. Petersen wasn’t armed. Chan called 911, police say.
As we reported earlier this month, the killing illustrates the difficult time Portland has in connecting people with mental health services. Police encountered Petersen sleeping in an alcove on SE Hawthorne weeks before his death, and opted to put him in jail. Officers could have elected to put a mental health hold on the man, potentially getting him reconnected with medication family members said had helped him in the past.
In the wake of Petersen’s death, some questioned why Chan had elected to follow the man into the parking lot with a gun. As Jason Renaud, of the Mental Health Association of Portland said at the time:
“Why haven’t the police arrested this man for murder? I think it’s largely because this is a person with mental illness. I can’t think of another time when someone was shot in cold blood, who was not armed and was not committing a crime, that charges weren’t filed.”
He was committing a crime, multiple crimes in fact. I mean set aside the earlier littering that Chan had to clean up, and the trespassing that appears to have been a regular occurance and look only at the 10 minutes or so before he got shot. He trespasses on the property, enters the business to threaten arson and murder, then leaves. Then when Mr. Chan goes outside the man returns and attacks him having just told him he was going to kill him and burn the business down. I am sorry that Oregon doesn’t just commit people like this who are incapable of taking care of themselves and living within societal norms like not threatening to kill strangers, but this isn’t on Mr. Chan.
Good. It’s a shame that it even had to go to the GJ.
econoline: Yes, he was committing many crimes. None of which carry the penalty of death though. The fact is, the business owner was not in any immediate danger. The man had left, he chose get a gun and follow him instead of locking the door and calling the police. This death was not warranted and completely avoidable.
Hey Econoline! If you litter on my property, can I kill you?
No seriously! Check the law on this subject!
If after I get done littering I break into your house threaten to kill you and burn your home to the ground and then I leave and then I come back later then I doubt you would be charged in the case. If all the guy did was litter then Chan would have been in the wrong, but that was by far the least of this guys crimes. The real question is if Chan had called the cops would the man have been prosecuted for his threats and unfortunately the answer is likely no. It is a revolving door with these violent homeless people in portland.