POLICE "COULDN'T WAIT"
TO KILL BLACK MAN HOLDING CHILD

45% of targets in 13 months are African American or Latino in a 77% white city

Portland Police shot at four citizens in December and February, killing two men; the shootings happened on back-to-back days in each month.

In the most recent­and controversial--case, at about 3:00 AM on February 22, a security guard at a southeast Portland motel called the police claiming a man was abusing a child in one of their rooms. According to the February 26 Portland Tribune, the police arrived two minutes later and burst into the room where Byron Hammick, 26, was allegedly harming a three-year-old boy. Witnesses told the media that the officers told Hammick to get away from the boy and shots were soon fired, killing Hammick. The boy's mother returned to the motel hours later, apparently not knowing what was going on. Hammick's family had gathered at the scene, only to be held back by police tape. The family admits Hammick had a past history with drugs, but claims that he was not violent. The coroner said Hammick had PCP and meth in his system.

The two primary officers in this incident were Stephen Mosier (#1683) and Christopher Gilbert (#34017). Mosier has been on the force since 1970, but took 18 years off for stress leave after a shooting in the early '80s.

This incident is particularly disturbing because police fired a gun at a suspect with a child in his arms just weeks after the noted ten-year anniversary of the shooting of Nathan Thomas, a boy shot along with his captor in January, 1992. Thomas' death supposedly devastated the police and brought about changes in responding to emergency situations, but this incident shows otherwise. The March 8 Orego-nian notes a third officer, Paul Jensen (#16456), who had been at the Thomas incident, was also present when Hammick was killed, and wanted to talk to Hammick to avoid "a repeat."

The article says that another officer, Rick White, arrived with a less-lethal "bean bag" shotgun at the same time Mosier decided he "couldn't wait." Mosier smashed the already broken motel room window, entered the room, and shot Hammick, who was on the floor holding the boy.

Hammick's family and leaders of the African American community expressed outrage, insisting that the police could have found non-lethal means to subdue Hammick. Clergy members called a news conference, at which Rev. Roy Tate proclaimed, "If three trained public police offiers cannot subdue one suspect that's half on the ground, that has no weapon, then we've got a strong problem" (Oregonian, March 9).

The first of the series of four shootings, on December 8, occurred in Northeast Portland after officers pursued Randolph Marion Martin, 41, on suspicion of shoplifting. According to the December 11 Oregonian, Martin tried to run over officers Carlos Pagan (#38061) and Homero Reynaga (#29551), prompting them to open fire. Martin was wounded in the hand. He drove away, eventually stopping after spike strips blew his tires.

The next day, Portland reserve officers John Wood (#34791) and Michael Glass (#25202) fired eighteen shots at robbery suspect Daniel Matthew Cromb, who had fled from them on a bicycle. Cromb, 23, was hit in the back and died. Police claim Cromb had a pellet gun, which Brian Schmautz, current flack for the PPB, says the officers believed was real (Oregonian, December 28). Although the grand jury--you guessed it--cleared the officers of wrongdoing, serious concerns have been raised about this case since it was the first fatal shooting by reserve officers, who are volunteer cops.

Cromb's father Bill was interviewed extensively in the Portland Tribune (December 21), complaining about the City's failure to provide him with information, including how many times his son was hit. He says the medical examiner told him only one of the 18 shots (10 to 15, according to the Trib) hit and thus killed him. He says his son was not violent, though he had problems with "substance abuse." His mother, Lisa, is quoted as saying that earlier on the day Cromb was killed, he was upbeat and expressed plans to get a job. On January 1, the Tribune reported that "authorities" claim Cromb may have been responsible for as many as ten robberies. We hope to be hearing more about what really happened.

On February 21, local labor activist Rich Lochner was shot at by officers who essentially accused him of stealing his own vehicle. The March Portland Alliance reports that the officers had tried to pull Lochner over, and because he did not immediately comply, they ran his licence plate number, which came up showing the vehicle was stolen. Problem was, it had been stolen, then returned, and someone forgot to clean up the records. Luckily, the officers involved missed Lochner, but apparently hit a nearby US Postal Service vehicle.

The police shot Byron Hammick the next morning.

There may be something to the fact that these incidents happened in clusters. For example: last July, Raymond Youngberg and Bruce Browne were shot two days apart (see PPR #24); James Farber and David Gildersleeve were shot a week apart in February, 2001 (see PPR #23); George Waldum and Lawrence Ramirez were shot two days apart in August, 2000 (see PPR #22); Richard Lynn Smith and Anthony Falsetto were shot 6 days apart in August, 1999 (see PPR #19). Otherwise, shootings tend to be separated by one to three months. Maybe from time to time the police get on edge when they hear about one shooting and are more likely to think about using their guns as well.

A more disturbing trend is that the mostly white city of Portland is experiencing an increase in shootings of people of color. Last year, Dwayne McClinton, Bruce Browne, and Tyrone Waters, all African-American men, were shot (or shot at); José Mejía Poot, a native Mexican laborer, was shot and killed; and now Hammick, an African-American man whose family describes him as "mild-mannered," was killed. Five black and Latino victims in just over a year, out of a total of 11 shooting incidents, is certainly cause for alarm.

Donations to the Byron Clay Hammick Truth and Justice Fund can be made at US Bank.

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