A Multnomah County grand jury has cleared a Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officer from facing criminal charges for fatally shooting a mentally ill man on October 10 at a SE 82nd motel.
PPB Officer Kelly VanBlokland shot 30-year-old Samuel Rice at the Del Rancho Motel after Rice threatened to kill a woman he had been holding hostage in a motel room.
The grand jury decided that VanBlokland, a member of the bureau’s Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT), had acted lawfully when he fired at Rice, because he was defending the hostage.
Rice had a long history of interacting with PPB officers before his death. According to police reports and mental health workers, Rice had a severe mental illness that left him drifting in and out of psychosis. PPB was regularly called to respond to his often violent outbursts.
“What police didn’t know was [that Rice was] living completely outside of reality,” said Ken Hansen, director of SL Start Oregon, a state contractor that assists people with developmental disabilities. Rice had been a SL Start Oregon client during a five-month period earlier this year.
“He had no idea what was going on or who he was talking to,” Hansen told the Mercury in October.
Rice is the fourth person to die at the hands of local law enforcement this year, joining John Elifritz and Patrick Kimmons, who were both fatally shot by PPB officers, and Jason Washington, who was fatally shot by Portland State University campus police. All officers involved in the shootings have been cleared of misconduct by Multnomah County grand juries.
Both Rice and Elifritz were perceived to be experiencing a mental health crisis when they were killed.
It’s weird how different media outlets report on these things differently. The Mercury sure does like to sugarcoat what the person does… and they love to use hindsight.
Here’s a more accurate snapshot of what happened:
“A 30-year-old man who barricaded himself inside a Southeast Portland motel room, holding his girlfriend hostage at knifepoint. The confrontation started after Rice was reported to have pulled a knife on a customer inside a 7-Eleven store. A short time later, Rice grabbed his girlfriend and pulled her into Room 16 of the Del Rancho Motel and held her hostage, threatening her life.”
So, dude was out of touch with reality, but seemed to have managed to have a girlfriend, get a knife, and hold said girlfriend hostage? Huh?
I am always glad whenever these guys fail to kill their darlings or complete strangers and random passers-by, but WW and The Merc don’t care about collateral damage. Where’s that crack team of psychiatrists and social workers who roam the city to make everything groovy by day AND by night? Oh! This is all on Ted Wheeler’s head! He’s supposed to fix EVERYTHING with a wave of his hand. Let’s shut down a city council meeting again — that’ll fix it.
Maybe I’m the crazy one here, but when person A is holding a knife to innocent person B, I want person A to get got.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“There is someone with a deadly weapon threatening the life of an innocent person.”
“I’m sorry, caller, we can’t respond to this…any action by the police will be protested. Good luck!”