“We are not the same police bureau we were three years ago,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day told city councilors Thursday, August 7, after they approved almost $4 million to resolve two of the most recent claims against the Portland Police Bureau (PPB).
The first lawsuit was filed in 2021 against PPB Detective Erik Kammerer. The plaintiff, Hannah Ahern, was arrested in 2019 while observing a counter protest against the far-right group the Proud Boys, who were staged nearby. According to her lawsuit, Ahern was arrested when she spat in the general direction of police to show her disgust, after they arrested a woman for twerking on a sidewalk near riot police, while simultaneously clearing the way for far-right groups to stage a photo. Her charges were later dropped by the District Attorney’s Office after video footage showed Ahern wasn’t blocking the intersection, as Kammerer claimed in his report. Ahern sued Kammerer personally for false arrest and battery. She settled for $62,500.
Chief Day’s statement was a primer for what would be an emotionally charged dialogue with councilors, who voted unanimously that day to approve a $3.75 million payout to the family of a man killed by police in 2022.
The multi-million dollar settlement stems from a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the city in 2024 by the estate of Immanueal “Manny” Clark-Johnson, who was mistaken for a robbery suspect and shot in the back by a police officer with an AR-15.
The settlements approved Thursday add to the mounting legal costs incurred by the city over complaints involving PPB. Over the past five years, the city has paid out more than $18.8 million to resolve nearly 900 lawsuits against the Police Bureau. The latest payouts bring that total to $22.6 million. The legal settlements approved last week will be paid out of the city’s insurance and claims fund.
Clark-Johnson, known to his family as Manny Clark, was the driver of a sedan that matched the vague description of a vehicle involved in an attempted robbery on November 19, 2022, in the parking lot of the Super Deluxe burger drive-thru in Southeast Portland.
Dispatchers told police the suspects were white men. Clark was Black.
But officers, with the help of a police plane tracking in the sky above, zeroed in on Clark’s car, believing it was the suspect vehicle. Police said Clark was driving a stolen car and reported he sped away, then pulled into a church parking lot. When a police car approached with lights on, Clark and one other passenger ran. An officer used an AR-15 to fire three rounds, one of which hit Clark in the lower torso as he tried to flee.
He died at a hospital two days later. It was later reported that Clark was left with life-threatening injuries for nearly 25 minutes before he was given medical aid.
Officer Christopher Sathoff, who shot Clark, later said in a grand jury interview that an AR-15 was the preferred weapon for high-stakes situations involving an armed suspect, because it comes with less risk of hitting the wrong target, and serves as a “de-escalation technique.”
Sathoff said his police weapons training taught him that.
“When you get out of a vehicle, and you’re addressing a person who may be armed, or is armed, there’s a tendency for them to change their behavior after they hear a rifle racking,” Sathoff said during a 2023 grand jury examination, chalking it up to “psychological compliance” from a suspect.
In 2023, a grand jury declined to indict Sathoff for Clark’s death. As OPB reported, PPB’s own internal investigator found Sathoff violated the Bureau’s policy when he fired three times at Clark as he ran away. Commanding officers within PPB disagreed with the Internal Affairs investigator’s findings.
Portland’s Police Review Board also narrowly disagreed, voting 4-3 that Sathoff’s actions didn’t violate PPB policy, according to OPB.
Sathoff was never disciplined. He remains on the force in an “off-street” role.
Chief Day, who had just been called out of retirement to serve as interim police chief in 2023, made the final decision.
“I don’t know how we’re gonna change this culture, or this bureau.”—Councilor Jamie Dunphy
Day explained that given the “tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving” circumstances the night of the shooting, and Sathoff’s belief that he and fellow officers were apprehending armed robbery suspects, he felt Sathoff’s actions were objectively reasonable (a key metric required to determine whether lethal force is justified).
Still, the police chief conveyed disappointment when addressing the circumstances of the case with city councilors Thursday.
Day emphasized the Bureau’s responsibility to uphold “preservation of life.”
“There’s no dispute that Mr. Clark’s death is a tragedy, and frankly, it should anger us,” Day said. The police chief quoted James Baldwin: “Neither love or terror makes one blind. Indifference makes one blind.”
“I do not want any of us, PPB or otherwise, to ever be indifferent to the loss of life in our city, regardless of the circumstances,” Day said.
Council filled with indignation
Councilors were far from indifferent, with several alluding to the need for a referendum on policing in the city. Thursday’s settlement discussion resurfaced questions about PPB’s training, annual budget, and overall accountability. News of Sathoff’s continued employment at PPB sent some reeling.
“I don’t know how we’re gonna change this culture, or this bureau,” District 1 Councilor Jamie Dunphy said, lamenting recent budget arguments among the Council about how to fully fund PPB, only to have to shell out millions “to fund a deeply unaccountable police officer’s actions.”
Dunphy promised to effectuate change.
“If policy was not violated, then policy needs to change,” Dunphy said. “I will be bringing policies to affect this bureau in some way—whether it’s financial and going after the purse strings, or policy around personnel—because this cannot be how the city of Portland operates.”
No one on the Council defended the Police Bureau. The Clark settlement not only highlighted a chasm between the city’s elected leaders and its police force, it underscored a stark difference in current leadership from that of years past.
The decision not to discipline or terminate Sathoff was ultimately up to Chief Day and former Mayor Ted Wheeler, who served as the city’s police commissioner.
While the former City Council often showed deference to Police Bureau leadership, the current Council is more likely to operate with heightened scrutiny.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, known for her even temperament, said her mother was a law enforcement officer. She said she learned early in her life “some very specific standards around weapon use.”
“One of those was that you don’t shoot unless you intend to, and are willing to kill someone. Otherwise, you don’t fire your gun,” Pirtle-Guiney said. “Because it hasn’t been said, I want to say very clearly to Manny’s family: I am sorry. I am sorry that this happened, and I’m sorry that you didn’t receive an apology from our city sooner. I know that this settlement is not enough. It’s not justice. I do think it is appropriate though.”
City staff–namely the police chief–faced tense questioning from the Council.
Councilor Loretta Smith, who serves in District 1, asked Chief Day to clarify how he landed on his discretionary decision not to discipline the officer who fired at Clark, noting “discrepancies” in the interpretation of Police Bureau policy among different review bodies.
District 4 Councilor Mitch Green, drawing from his past military experience, asked why it took so long to render aid to Clark, when multiple officers were on scene and one could’ve rushed to Clark’s aid while the others secured the scene and the suspects. Chief Day said military combat situations aren’t a good analogy for a police scene, but later, District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo pushed back on Day’s assertion.
“I actually don’t think the analogy of a combat veteran applying medical aid … is unfair at all,” Morillo said bluntly, asserting Black men in Portland are treated as “enemy combatants” by police. She called Clark’s death a “massive injustice.”
“The fact that we expect that our officers, who are trained individuals, should be given grace when they are making split-second decisions, but that our community members—who are regular people, who don’t have any training, who have a rifle pointed at them or a gun shot, or police officers coming after them—are supposed to respond in a calm, rational manner, as if though that’s not an extremely terrifying thing to have happen to you….” Morillo posited.
Among those calling for a shift in the city’s policing model is District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos. Like some of her colleagues, Avalos found herself disconcerted by the determination that the officer acted in accordance with PPB policy and is still employed with PPB.
“I continue to be… disturbed by the absolute lack of progress that we are making in actually changing the way that the police are interacting with our community, and the price that they’re paying with their lives when we fail to hold [police] accountable,” she said before voting to approve the settlement with Clark’s family.
Avalos alluded to “cultural work” that needs to be done to “transform the ways that the government interacts with Portlanders.”
Immediately following the vote on the wrongful death settlement, City Council reviewed PPB’s 2024 annual report. Among the Bureau’s top priorities: “transforming the dynamic between police and the people we serve.”
Note: This story has been corrected to clarify the name of the review board that voted on the 2022 shooting and the vote tally.
