Detectives are still investigating this morning’s fatal officer-involved shooting on the Springwater Corridor, but the president of Portland’s rank-and-file police union has already drawn conclusions.
“The officers involved in this situation acted appropriately in defense of their lives as well as protecting the lives of innocent civilians,” Portland Police Bureau President Daryl Turner writes in a communication to union members, obtained by the Mercury. “As the investigative process continues, more information will be released.”
This morning’s shooting played out shortly after 6 am. Police received 911 call from a man who said he’d been assaulted near SE 104th and Foster, a stretch of road that runs parallel to the Springwater. Two officers responded, and found the suspect on the recreational trail, according to Portland Police Sergeant Pete Simpson. Simpson says the man began swinging a “large crow bar” at close range, and that one of the officers tripped as he backed away. It’s not clear which officer fired the fatal shot(s).
The incident marks the third officer-involved shooting for Portland police this year, and the third time in as many days members of local police agencies have fired their weapons at suspects. Yesterday, Simpson announced Milwaukie cops had killed an “uncooperative” motorist inside Portland city limits, after a brief car chase. And school resource officers shot at the 15-year-old Reynolds High School shooter on Tuesday, apparently injuring him before he took his own life in one of the school’s bathrooms.
An autopsy for the man killed in today’s shooting is scheduled for Friday morning, and police aren’t yet releasing his name. As with any officer-involved shooting, it’s under investigation.
Here’s Turner’s full message to his members:
June 12th, 2014
Today’s incident is just another example of police officers encountering more violent offenders during routine incidents. The officers involved in this situation acted appropriately in defense of their lives as well as protecting the lives of innocent civilians.
As the investigative process continues, more information will be released. Today is a reminder of the dangerous nature of law enforcement as we serve and protect our neighborhoods and our communities.
Daryl Turner
President, Portland Police Association
Are tasers, night sticks, etc just decoration?
I know shoot first, maybe ask questions later is the motto of the police, but come on.
It is deeply troubling that the Portland police seem to adopt a “shoot-to-kill” policy instead of “shoot-enough-to-stop-the-guy-and-no-more”.
It’s also deeply troubling that we have a police union who leap to defend their own without waiting for things like facts to come out first. Maybe it’ll turn out that they’re right, and the cop’s life was truly in imminent danger, and there was no alternative way of saving the cops life (since you have to meet both those criteria for killing someone to be even halfway justifiable). After all, once the facts had come out it turned out that the first two shootings this year were both perfectly justified. But when the union make preemptive statements like that, it prevents me from taking anything they say seriously.
Suicide by cop. Again.
Bullets can go astray. The officer was correct in assuming that the assailant meant him serious harm or death, but the officer risked the lives of innocent bystanders, when all he needed to do was to distance himself from the assailant, call for backup, then toss a big fishing net over the guy. Even the Fire Department could have managed to do that. Police need to be thoroughly trained in Aikido. This sort of thing never happens in Japan.
We need to start calling the Girl Scouts to handle these situations rather than the militarized police that our nation has come under siege by. At least the Girl Scouts could ask troubled, mentally ill people if they would like to talk and have some Girl Scout cookies instead of just shooting them.
Don’t act surprised. This is the Police State. A single individual is an untenable threat when confronted by two highly trained, well-armed and ARMORED police officers. Yeah, I’m sure a crowbar being swung wildly is just too scary for a couple of dyed-in-the-wool killers. Why waste money with due process or incarcerating folks anymore when they can be disposed of with $0.65 bullets.
I sincerely doubt that any Portland police officer who has ever shot anybody here, was ever in war. These bullies romanticize killing and imagine there to be prestige in so doing. I say send them to Afghanistan while they wait out their suspension.