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Portland Copwatch Pushes Oregon Counties To Enter
74 Law Enforcement-Caused Deaths into State Database
Following 33 Incidents in 2023, At Least Five People Have Been Shot in 2024 Statewide

On March 19, Portland Copwatch (PCW) sent a letter to the Oregon Attorney General and 27 District Attorneys outlining 74 cases in which officers caused the deaths of community members, but had not been entered into the state database as required by law. SB 111 (2007) required each death to be reported to the state and to the public. Roughly 1/3 of over 230 such incidents were not in the database. In addition, PCW found 56 data entry errors such as wrong or mis-spelled names, duplicate entries and errors about people's race. Within days, three counties responded by adding six new entries (8% of the missing cases).* PCW's report was a follow- up to the annual letter to the Attorney General sent in February listing all deadly force cases whether a person was killed, injured or not hit by bullets, or died in custody after use of force. In 2023, there were 33 deadly force incidents, down from a record 42 in 2022 (PPR #89). This project began in 2014 and includes data back to 2010; in those 14 years there have been over 420 deadly force incidents in our state.

As of mid-April, officers in Oregon have used deadly force at least five times, including the shooting death of Matthew Holland in Portland; the PPB was also responsible for the 33rd incident in 2023 (see shootings article). Here are the other four incidents so far in 2024:

--On March 20, Bend Police Officer Wesley Murphy shot Gabriel Keith Platz, 18, when he allegedly pointed a firearm at officers after crashing his car. The District Attorney says Platz shot himself at the same time the officer fired (Central Oregon Daily News, March 21 and Bend Bulletin, April 5).

--On January 12, unidentified police in Gold Beach shot and wounded a person at a traffic stop. The officers and the person have not been named, even after the grand jury found no wrongdoing by police, because the "motorist" is still being investigated (KRDV-TV12, February 29).

--On January 9, two unidentified Gresham Police officers shot and killed Carlos Corona, 29, while he was allegedly engaged in stabbing another person in a motel room (GreshamOregon.gov, January 17).

--On January 2, Officers Mason Powell and Mark Powell (no, not related) shot and wounded Justin Burkeen, 30, who apparently fired a pellet gun at one of the officers (Baker City Herald, January 14).

Follow-up: In our last issue we reported on a person who died in the custody of Milwaukie Police. In an unusual move, they released body camera footage which seems to indicate that the officers did not use force on the man, and were in fact trying to urge the hospital to keep him in their care due to his medical state.

*- Two entries were from Yamhill County, leaving one missing from there; two were from Clackamas County, leaving one shooting and one Taser death missing from there; one was the only missing incident in Linn County, and the last was from Jackson County, leaving six unreported.
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In addition to six cases being added to the state database (see graphic), Portland Copwatch received response emails from the District Attorneys in Coos and Washington Counties seeking clarification about the project.

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May, 2024
Also in PPR #92

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.

People's Police Report #92 Table of Contents
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