Update: 9:43 am: Portland Police Bureau body camera footage from this incident was released Monday, Sept. 9. A link to the footage is included below.

The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) identified the officer who shot and injured a man in the Portsmouth neighborhood on Aug. 24 as Nicholas Morales. Morales has been with PPB for five years and is assigned to the North Precinct.

The shooting happened around 5:15 pm Saturday, Aug. 24 in the 7600 block of North Portsmouth Avenue, when officers responded to a call of an armed man acting erratically. 

Police say Robert Seeger, 52, yelled at and chased them, then ducked behind vehicles at an apartment complex.

PPB claims Seeger “continued exhibiting erratic behavior” over the course of an hour, so officers called in the Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT)—a specialized team deployed in high risk and crisis situations involving suspects.

Police say Seeger was armed with a handgun and picked up a hammer at least once. While  residents in the area were instructed to shelter in place, an officer fired at Seeger with a 40 millimeter less lethal round. Officers then shot at Seeger with a regular gun, wounding him. PPB reports Seeger “continued to disobey commands” so they released a K-9 on him and then arrested him at the scene.

It's unclear exactly what behavior Seeger displayed, or what led him to grab weapons before police were called. A video outlining the incident suggests Seeger yelled at police and taunted them to shoot him at one point.

Seeger was taken to a hospital and released four days later to be booked into Multnomah County Detention Center. Seeger had warrants for his arrest. He was charged with unlawful use of a Weapon, felon in possession of a firearm, burglary, menacing.

The incident was the fourth officer-involved shooting for PPB this year, two of which were fatal.

Morales, the officer who used deadly force on Seeger, remains on paid administrative leave while the bureau conducts an internal review of the incident. The shooting will also go before the Police Review Board, which includes PPB staff as well as non-police board members and members of the city’s Independent Police Review division. The incident is the first PPB officer-involved shooting that includes body camera footage, after the recent implementation of police-worn body cameras within the bureau.

Morales was named in a lawsuit filed against the city in 2021 by a man who was injured by a burglar who robbed his home. In that lawsuit, Melvin Broadous, a local Realtor, claimed police responded to a burglary at a vacant home he owned in North Portland in 2020.

Morales was a responding officer and assured Broadous over the phone that he and a partner inspected the home and cleared the scene, noting it was safe for Broadous, and showed no signs of entry. Broadous claims he asked officers to remain on scene at the property while he rushed there from his primary residence in Tigard, but they had already left. When Broadous got to the house, which had boarded up windows, the burglar was leaving through a basement level window with stolen items. Broadous allegedly chased the man, who used a stolen tripod to assault the homeowner. The two got into a physical fight and Broadous pinned the suspect down until police arrived. He suffered several injuries, including a shoulder injury that required surgery. 

The case was moved to district court and later dismissed in October 2023.