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Oregon Police Involved in 25 Deadly Force Incidents in 2016;
Six So Far in 2017

--On April 12, Gresham officer Matt Anderson shot at Jaime Cortinas, 42, who allegedly killed his own two daughters. The Medical examiner says Cortinas killed himself (Portland Tribune, April 14).

--On April 7, Marion County Sgt. Jason Hickam shot at (but did not hit) Juan Francisco Martinez, 35, after being injured by Martinez' car in Woodburn (Oregon State Police, April 7).

--On February 21, Beaverton Officers Jason Buelt and Dan Cotton shot and killed Douglas Michael Smith, a 51 year old man who was sitting on the roof of a house pointing a gun at neighbors. He allegedly fired his gun into the house, leading to the police's deadly response (Oregonian, February 25).

--On February 19, Central Point Police Officer D. Brown shot and wounded Justin Daniel Lopez, 21. Lopez supposedly pulled up next to Brown in his Camaro, spun his tires, and drove away at 70 miles an hour, then got out of the car and pointed a shotgun at the officer, who fired six shots (Oregonlive, March 4).

--On December 25, officers from Tigard, Hillsboro, Sherwood and Tualatin shot and killed James Tylka, 30, near Sherwood after he allegedly shot and wounded Oregon State Trooper Nic Cederberg (Oregonian, December 28). Tylka was wanted for the murder of his estranged wife, and had been a Beaverton Police cadet from 2004-2006 (KOIN-6, December 26)

--On December 23, Bend Officers Scott Schaier and Marc Tisher pulled over Michael Jacques, 23, for driving erratically. Jacques "did not cooperate," leading one officer to use a Taser, and at least one to fire a gun. Jacques had autism, mental health and addiction issues (Bend Source, January 18). Note: Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel declined to consider Jacques' criminal past, saying "What's important is what happened at that moment... history can tell us something, it's not 100 percent relevant" (KTVZ-21, December 24).

In other news:

--The Washington Post reported that police shot and killed 963 people in 2016, just under the 991 they tracked in 2015. The Post is keeping up its database, but the Guardian stopped collecting data in 2017.

--The Portland Tribune says 456 people in Oregon die from gunshot wounds every year, "but 83% of those deaths are suicides, with homicide at 13%; legal intervention [ie police shootings], unintentional shootings and undetermined intent shootings account for the remaining 4%" (January 19). That means in 2016 the 15 who died from officer bullets made up about 3.3% of all gun deaths.*

--Of 135 U.S. officers who died on duty in 2016, 64 (or 47%) were shot and killed (Associated Press, December 30), which means as in the past, more officers die in traffic accidents and other means than by the over-hyped so-called "war on cops."

* One was killed by a patrol car ramming him (PPR #70).

May, 2017
Also in PPR #71

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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