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Portland Police Shoot At, Miss Houseless Man Unable to
Speak; Six months after their last use of deadly force and one month into daily protests against police misconduct, the Portland Police shot at--but missed--Gray Tristan Stockton, a houseless 25 year old man who is also mute, on June 25. A Gresham officer assisting Portland Police shot and killed a man in late May. Both suspects were white men. Meanwhile, community members continue to seek justice in previous deadly force cases.
Portland Officer Laurent Bonczijk (#52761) reportedly fired his weapon at Stockton thinking the young man was armed. They had found him hiding in a closet in an otherwise abandoned home at the 7900 block of SE 6th during a call to check the status of that house. It's likely a combination of difficulty communicating with a person unable to talk and PPB heightened sensitivity to protecting property over life (see protests article in this issue) led to the shooting. Luckily. Stockton lived to see another day. This was the first shooting since officers killed Koben Henriksen in December (PPR #79). Israel Berry: Would Portland Police Have Killed Him? Gresham Officer James Doyle (#58184) assisted "several" Portland officers investigating alleged threats made by Israel Berry, 49, on May 31. A witness told KPTV-12 the officers did not issue a warning before killing Berry, who had earlier been arguing with a woman (June 9). The witness noted the officers surrounded Berry in his car and the Gresham cop quickly shot and killed the man. Portland Copwatch (PCW) has repeatedly asked the question of who decides when to deploy lethal force when multiple agencies are involved. It would seem since this was a call inside Portland City limits (at SE 124th and Kelly St) the PPB should have been the primary agency making the plans and calling the shots, so to speak, leading to the question of whether Berry would be dead had only Portland Police been present. Council Approves $125,000 for Cab Driver Injured in Deadly Police Crash We previously reported on the death of Christopher Cannard in 2018 when Officer Alfonso Valadez, Jr. engaged in a car chase which led to Cannard having a head-on crash on the interstate and dying (PPR #75). The person whose car was struck by Cannard, cab driver Ethiopia Amdino, suffered serious injuries and filed suit against the City. On May 27, City Council agreed to a payment of $125,000 for Mr. Amdino. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty thanked PCW for highlighting that this case had to do with police negligence, since the City's paperwork was vague about the circumstances involved. As a reminder, Valadez resigned while under investigation for the crash, having previously been fired for an off-duty sexual assault-- but reinstated by an arbitrator who doubted the female victim's claim the sex was not consensual.
The family of John Elifritz, who was shot in a houseless shelter in 2019, had their lawsuit dismissed on May 14 with the judge saying Elifrtiz was likely to attack police, but admitting police might have violated some Bureau policies (Oregonlive, May 14).
Keaton Otis Remembered 10 Years Later On May 12, organizers of the Justice for Keaton Otis (JFKO) Committee put together an online memorial for Keaton, who was killed on that date in 2010 when three officers fired 32 bullets and hit him 23 times (PPR #51). Speakers talking about racism and police violence continuing during the pandemic were eerily predictive of the death of George Floyd two weeks later. In addition to other family members of people killed by police (such as Joe Bean Keller, whose son Deontae was killed in 1996) and community organizers (including a pre-recorded statement by Dr. Leroy Haynes, Jr. of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform), the event featured two artists who are working on a permanent memorial for Keaton at NE 6th and Halsey. PCW's Dan Handelman also spoke at the event, which was hosted by activist, author and academic Walidah Imarisha. The original two hour video can be seen at the JFKO facebook page. Patrick Kimmons' Family Continues Spotlighting 2018 Death Letha Winston, whose son Patrick Kimmons was killed by Portland Police in September 2018 (PPR #76), demanded a new criminal review of the shooting during a daytime protest on June 25 as part of the uprising after the death of George Floyd. She led a march from City Hall to the site of her son's death (Oregonian, June 26). Participants in a protest outside the home of Mayor Ted Wheeler a week earlier named a group of blocks they'd barricaded the "Patrick Kimmons Autonomous Zone" (Oregonian, June 19). PSU Students Revive Efforts to Disarm Campus Police In mid-June, just before the two year anniversary of the shooting death of Jason Washington by Portland State University Campus Police (PPR #76), protestors marched to the public safety office and called once more to disarm university cops. Washington's daughter said her father died "because PSU made the horrific decision to legally arm their security against the wishes of students, faculty and staff" (Oregonian, June 13). The day of the anniversary, June 29, PSU announced a memorial fund will be established in Washington's name (KOIN-6 , June 29). In early August, PSU announced that Campus Police will patrol in the fall without firearms. |
September, 2020
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
#81 Table of Contents
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Gray Stockton: Is
Squatting a Capital Crime?