Twenty people with a mental illness have been killed by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) in the past decade.
The first, Aaron Campbell, was depressed and contemplating thoughts of suicide when he was shot in the back by an officer outside his apartment complex. The latest, Koben Henriksen, was homeless with an untreated mental illness when he was gunned down by police near Mall 205.
It was this same decade that the US Department of Justice sued the City of Portland for having a police department that disproportionately used deadly force against people experiencing a mental health crisis. Since that 2012 lawsuit, Portland has been operating under the terms of a settlement agreement with the feds—one that, through new training and increased police discipline, is meant to prevent similar fatal encounters.
Yet none of the officers responsible for those 20 deaths have faced criminal charges for their actions.
