Grand Jury Clears Officers for Shooting Burglary Suspect

A Multnomah County grand jury has pardoned a pair of Portland cops who shot at a robbery suspect earlier this month—riddling their target with multiple gunshot wounds.

In the decision handed down late yesterday afternoon, the jury instead indicted the suspect, Sarah Michelle Brown (who oddly also goes by Alexis Elizabeth Wilder), with attempted murder for returning the officers’ fire. In total, the grand jury decision leaves Brown facing 26 counts of attempted aggravated murder, unlawful use of a weapon, reckless endangerment, theft and burglary. The cops’ use of deadly force, however, “was justified under the criminal law.”

It’s still blurry how Brown’s encounter with officers Darrel Shaw and Joseph Webber went down. According to Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley, officers initially confronted Brown in the midst of a home burglary in Goose Hollow during the early morning hours of Thursday, March 8. There was “an exchange of gunfire,” Burley said, but neither officer was shot. Then Brown, who had been hit in the leg and hand, retreated under a nearby porch, where she hid for several hours. PPB’s crisis negotiation team eventually coaxed her out around 7 a.m.

Brown spent four days in the hospital recovering from her injuries before being trucked off to Multnomah County Jail.

One of the officers involved, Darrell Shaw, isn’t a stranger to these types of proceedings. In fact, he’s made a name for himself in his 24 years on the force with how often he’s been the target of use-of-force complaints at PPB. According to a 2006 report by the Portland Tribune, Shaw had sent 14 different civilians to the hospital over a period of two years—more than any other officer at the time. Some of his altercations may ring a bell: Like when he joined three other police officers in fatally shooting a homeless man in 2005, or when he allegedly grabbed a drunk woman by her hair and slammed her head against a patrol car for spitting at him in 2006. In at least one case, he cost the city hundreds of thousands in settlement costs to one of his victims.

Both Shaw and Webber have been on paid administrative leave since this month’s shooting. But the grand jury’s dismissal means they’ll be returning to work shortly.