NEARLY SIX WEEKS after obtaining a hard drive that investigators and advocates hoped would shed more light on the police shooting last December of Darryel Dwayne Ferguson—possibly by revealing security footage of the altercation as it happened—the Portland Police Bureau has announced that no such video was found.
“We subjected the hard drive to an analysis by our computer forensics experts,” says police spokesman Lieutenant Robert King. “That analysis has not resulted in any viewable files of what we were told was on the hard drive.”
Portland cops got hold of the hard drive last month after receiving a tip from an attorney working with Ferguson’s girlfriend, Marsha Lawson. The hard drive belonged to Robert “BA” Amsden, the manager of Ferguson’s Southeast Portland apartment complex. While Amsden initially told detectives there was no recording of the shooting, blaming a system malfunction, he later told other sources, including Lawson, that he was able to view what happened, although with varying details.
Amsden, reached for comment Tuesday, June 28, declined to address why police couldn’t uncover any footage. Nor would he specify what, exactly, he saw—and whether it contradicted official accounts of the shooting.
That’s important, because security footage would potentially provide an objective reckoning of what happened outside Ferguson’s door. The only witnesses to Ferguson’s shooting are the officers who killed him, Jonathan Kizzar and Kelly Jenson—something that has raised concerns among Ferguson’s survivors.
“I’ve been instructed not to talk to anybody about anything,” Amsden told the Mercury. Asked who gave those instructions, he replied: “That’s none of your business.”
According to grand jury testimony, Ferguson, 45, was shot by two police officers who had knocked on his apartment door in the wee hours of December 17, 2010, looking to quell a dispute between Ferguson and another neighbor [“Knock, Knock… You’re Dead,” News, Jan 13]. The two officers, who didn’t announce themselves when they knocked, said Ferguson opened the door and immediately pointed a replica handgun at one of their heads—prompting them to fire nearly 20 bullets before Ferguson fell back into his apartment, dead.
A BB gun made to look like a handgun was found in Ferguson’s apartment, but on a kitchen counter, not near his body. Lawson, Ferguson’s girlfriend, told detectives she moved the weapon.
A toxicology report obtained by the Mercury shows Ferguson wasn’t legally drunk at the time of the shooting—with only a .07 percent blood-alcohol content—despite reports he’d been drinking heavily before he died. But the report did reveal a devastating brew of other drugs in his system, all of them recently used: anxiety medication, cocaine, and heroin. Marijuana also was found—Ferguson was a medicinal pot user—but it wasn’t clear how recently he got high.
State Medical Examiner Karen Gunson told the Mercury Ferguson “had a buzz” and that “there’s clearly substance abuse here.” “Most of the time, these drugs aren’t just additive” in their effects, she said, “they’re synergistic.”
Grand jurors, meanwhile, cleared Kizzar and Jenson of criminal wrongdoing, but an internal bureau investigation—standard after every shooting—is ongoing and could lead to discipline.
King said the hard drive was delivered to the bureau’s East Precinct, and that investigators made a copy of the drive before returning it to Amsden. Investigators also were warned the drive was having problems, King said. Although they managed to find video files, some were unreadable, and none were from the day of Ferguson’s shooting.
Lawson’s attorney, Benjamin Haile, joined by the Mercury, has since obtained the original hard drive from Amsden and is conducting his own analysis of the device. That analysis, still ongoing, has confirmed that the hard drive is damaged—although it’s unclear when that damage occurred—but has yet to turn up any footage of Ferguson’s shooting.
An analyst for Portland-based Secure Data Recovery Services, speaking generally about recovering security camera footage, said each case is different but recovery is often “next to impossible,” even with advanced forensics tools. Some systems require proprietary software to view video files, while others regularly write over old files to conserve hard drive space.
The murkiness surrounding the hard drive—and what it contains—would appear to shine an even brighter light on Amsden, who has mostly attempted to avoid scrutiny and has repeatedly refused requests to explain on the record what, if anything, he might have seen.
Maybe there’s no footage after all? Says Amsden: “I’m through with you all.”
An .07% BAC is under the presumptive level of intoxication for DUI; However, it does not mean he was sober. Particularly so, considering the cocktail of other substances he had ingested. You may be convicted oif DUI even with a BAC under the presumtive level if there is clear indicia of intoxication (like bad driving and failed Feild Tests.) While he he may not have been “drunk” (as the Merc put it), he certainly was under the influence, and impaired. Private security systems can range from very detailed, to just plain awful, depending on their quality, maintainence, and placement. Even if he had no drugs of alcohol in his system, the officers were fully justified in employing deadly force because, by his actions, the suspect lead officers to believe that their lives were at risk. The bottom line is: If you don’t want to be shot and killed by the police, don’t point what appears to be a firearm at them. As for Internal Affairs and the Use of Force Board, they were probably waiting to get the results of the hard drive before making their findings. Without a doubt, they will find the officers were justified in their actions. (Because they were…)
Prescriptive medications, illness & diseases can cause false positives for heroin & cocaine. So once again, it raises more questions as to the type of drug testing by the medical examiner and if the findings were compared to medications prescribed to Darryel Ferguson’s physican. And if the medical examiner can determine if the positive results were due to “street drugs” or legal perscriptions for his diseases.
Sources stated prior to the release of the toxicology test stated he was very drunk, which has now been disproven. So what is the REAL story behind this shooting…
http://www.stardetox.com/false-positive.ht…
Cocaine – Substances or Conditions which can cause false positives
Kidney infection (kidney disease)
Liver infection (liver disease)
Diabetes
Amoxicillin, tonic water
Opiates – Substances or Conditions which can cause false positives
Poppy Seeds
Tylenol with codeine
Most prescription pain medications
Cough suppressants with Dextromethorphan (DXM)
Nyquil
Kidney infection, Kidney Disease
Diabetes, Liver Disease
why is anyone even surprised that the evidence was obviously tampered with. This is the real world and this stuff happens every day old news move on
Clearly, these pigs are covering up a MURDER they commited! Clearly, these pigs have gotten to Amsden. Where’s the fed. investigation into this criminal cover-up???
The “Take home message”:
If you point a replica handgun at a police officer’s head at close range, don’t be surprised when he shoots and kills your dumb ass.
A concept so simple that, perhaps, even you may understand it D. On second thought, no…probably not.
Guess what dumb-ass, the cops NEVER IDENTIFIED THEMSELVES!
It is amazing to me that people take things for granted in this and many other cases. Tell me would you feel the same way if it had been you on the other side of that door, after being in a confrontation? Come knocking on my door at 3:00am and June Cleaver won’t answer it either! Just be a status quo…that’s what they want…
Do I think there was a cover up by the two shooting Portland Police officers in this case…YES!
The door to the apt was one that had to be opened with both hands & it was on a piston system meaning it closed by itself when released. And once again there was no clear view of the hallway to see who was at the door, as there was a Christmas wreath hanging on the door with the peephole in the center obscuring the view to the left/right of the door.
If Ferguson had one hand on the dead bolt & one hand on the knob to open the door which swings to the right, the bb gun could not have been in his hand, because both hands would have been used to open the door; meaning the gun would have been in his pocket or waistband.
If you read both officer’s GJury statements they vary with what happens prior to and at the door of D. Ferguson’s apt door.
With a suspect answering a door with an officer on both sides of the door, puts D. Ferguson between them. The time it took for him to open the door, draw the bbgun while taking steps across the threshold, into the hallway and pointing a bbgun at the officer on the right’s head; makes me wonder what the hell the officer on the left of the door was doing. I think that portion of the story is false and was fabricated to cover up the first officer’s mistake. Witness stated he heard an officer say “he had a gun” meaning the officer on the right did not see the weapon; and he did not know the reason for his partner firing his weapon..he just followed suit and fired the fatal shots.
I think the officer on the left of the door spotted the gun, either in his pocket or waistband, yelled out and began firing. Logically if Ferguson was in the middle of two officers, turns his back to the officer on the left to take two steps and place the gun at the officer on the right’s head; there was ample time to taze, shoot or subdue Ferguson by the officer on the left. Instead he backs up, squats and fires excessive rounds into a wall next to the door…no doubt in my mind he panicked the moment he saw the butt of that bb gun. Which raises the question of if it was even in his hand at the time the shooting started.
Now, this brings us to the damaged video, which was viewed by the manager of the apartments, who stated he never saw in the security video Ferguson come over the threshold or pass the doors frame. The manager called the police; who took the evidence from the scene and returned it damaged. Why is that? Now it is the word of the apartment manager against the entire PPD. This case stinks to high heaven…and it could be someone you know on the loosing end of a PPD visit in the future….
Justice for Darryel D. Ferguson