The 61-year-old suspect in this morning’s shooting of two Portland police officers, Ralph Turner, has now been booked on five counts of attempted murder. He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow.
Police were called to Turner’s home on a report he was threatening suicide. Turner shot through his door at one pair of officers, police said, injuring one. Another officer responding to the gunfire was then shot in the stomach. Multiple officers shot “suppression fire” toward Turner’s house but just more than an hour after the first call, a hostage negotiator managed to talk Turner out of his house. He emerged unhurt and unarmed.
A police spokesman tonight said in a release that the officer who was shot in the lower abdomen was “expected to make a full recovery.” The officers’ names won’t be released until at least tomorrow morning, Sergeant Pete Simpson said.
The mayor’s office released a statement this afternoon praising the police force’s actions, essentially what the mayor said to reporters near the shooting scene earlier today.
“I want to underscore, based on what we know, the great police work that’s been done today,” Mayor Sam Adams said. “There was an amazing amount of heroism, with other officers providing cover fire to be able to rescue our wounded officer and get him to safety. And there was great work done to quickly evacuate residents in the area. The police responded to this unexpectedly violent incident with restraint, and were smart. I am very proud of their work.
“I also visited the hospital this morning, and had an opportunity to talk to the wounded officer’s family. I know all Portlanders join me in wishing him and the other officer a speedy recovery. All of our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”
I saw that cop rolling on the ground, and being carried away by his comrades more than a minute later. Had a red-hot supersonic projectile gone into his abdomen, by that time his pale blue police tunic would have been soaked with blood, yet it was clean and dry when they lifted him by his armpits and hustled him out of there.
The PPB is *lying* to you, Merc.
@nwspirit: So the other officers took him to the hospital and said “Can you hold him here for a couple of days and pretend he’s been shot”? Interesting.
I used to think the comments left on the Mercury blog were a nice, thoughtful change from those over at OregonLive. Seems as though that is no longer the case. It’s the same type of lunatic commenting; the only difference is they have the ultra-right wing nutjobs to the Merc’s ultra-left wing nutjobs. One is no more palatable than the other.
I dunno guys @nwspirit has seen reservoir dogs, he knows what a gut shot cop looks like.
@Chuck: The other difference is that here, the regular commenters don’t take people like “nwspirit” seriously and post stuff agreeing with them. You get nutjobs commenting on any news site, the Merc still has by far the best sane:insane ratio in town.
Back on topic: sounds like the cops got it right this time, nobody dead, situation solved. The anti-cop brigade could do with remembering this incident, and the many others showing that the majority of cops are good here. And of course the police union could do with helping (instead of obstructing) the process of getting rid of the very small minority of homicidal idiots in the force…
hope Leo Besner was paying attention to HOW they did it this time…the man who’d gone bonkers lived through it all and wasn’t shot in the back by a rogue cop as the negotiator was talking the man into giving up…this time it was a totally PROFESSIONAL outcome, not a Besner-RAMBO-take-down mistake that should have cost him his job ((didn’t, as we all know as his pal the Reesie Chief gave him a promotion a few months backj))…so what caused the PoPoMoFo’s to do it different this time?>>>>cause they’re sick ‘n’ tired of WE THE PEEPS jumping their asses every-time they fuck-up and wantonly kill a fellow-citizen that is done under abuse of power and malfeasance of duty…so, people keep the pressure up and make ’em tap-dance the way we want ’em to…good work fellow citizens for they are finally listening to us!
I see that calling something what it is upsets some tender folks. How about, “Not everything is adding up, here.” Feel better now, children?
@nwspirit: How about you show up with some proof or evidence that corroborates your story? Otherwise you’re a crackpot that’s full of shit. kthnxbai
nwspirit: STFU troll.
I thought the last time a cop got shot it was one cop shooting another when they were in a semi-circle around Keaton Otis’s car door? (look at the evidence sheets- no shells from Mr. Otis’s gun described on the evidence logs or diagrams, but lots of police shells. )
But that’s the last shooting incident. *This* incident appears to be a mentally ill guy with a rifle with a scope who is a decent shot. That’s per the police and other witnesses. If you really saw something different nwspirit, then you should contact the shooter’s lawyer. I suspect they’d like to hear from you.
In a recent ranking of the nation’s 20 most dangerous occupations, police work came in 12th — behind loggers, fishermen, farmers, sanitation workers and used car salesman.