Site Navigation

Portland Police Kill Two More in December/January
Including Fourth Black Man Shot in 13 Months
Sergeant Found Out of Policy for Involvement, Not Gunfire, in 2021 Case

On December 27, six days after our last issue went to press, Portland Police shot and killed Tyrone Johnson II, a 33 year old Black man, who was suspected of shoplifting at Mall 205. This marked the fourth time Portland Police shot at a young Black Portlander in just over a year, after having not shot anyone matching that description between January 2019 (Andre Gladen--PPR #77) and November 2022 (Antoine Young--PPR #88). The officers involved, John Bartlett (#56711), Adi Ramic (#51049) and Brian Wheeler (#57813) had all shot community members before. Then just a few weeks later on January 14, Matthew Holland, 31, was apparently firing off a high powered rifle inside a luxury downtown apartment building. Officer Joshua Howery (#37867) shot and killed Holland with a similar assault-style rifle from across the street. Howery was involved in two previous incidents. Meanwhile, following up on the shooting of Joshua Degerness in 2021 (PPR #85), Sgt. Norman Staples (#43528), who left his supervisory position to fire his weapon, was given minimal discipline-- and not for shooting and wounding Degerness, but for becoming involved tactically.

Tyrone Johnson II: Second Person Allegedly Suspected of Theft Killed by PPB in December

Johnson's death came exactly three weeks after the PPB killed Isaac Seavey, who was suspected of stealing electricity from a business (PPR #91). It seems that theft is now a capital crime in Portland. The police didn't identify the victim at first, but his mother Tonya Portis was quoted in the Oregonian on December 28: "I'm not saying my son was an angel, by any means, but he is somebody's child." The article adds "Portis noted that her son was Black and added that his friends in the car, who were detained and then released, were white." Hmm. Moreover, Officers Bartlett and Ramic were previously involved in a similar incident in May 2022, when they wounded Matthew Leahey (PPR #87). Both are with the much-touted Focused Intervention Team, which is supposed to be reducing gun violence in Portland, but seems to be adding to the violence with four shootings in the two years they've existed. The cops released a photo of a gun that was supposedly found near Johnson, who was houseless at the time.

For his part, Officer Wheeler was one of the two Portland officers who shot and killed Jack Watson in April 2023 (PPR #90), making two shootings in one year for him. He also pushed medic Evelyn Cushing with his baton in 2020, leading to a settlement of $47,500 and Wheeler being found out of policy and suspended for a day without pay (PPR #88).

Rear Window: Matthew Holland Shot in Luxury Tower from Across the Street

Officer Howery used his sniper rifle to kill Holland as part of the Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT). There is no information yet whether Holland was a resident of the downtown tower- - which could mark a rare shooting of a wealthy person by police. Holland was on the eighth floor and bullets were coming out of his apartment and hitting the walls of neighbors' places. The PPB's original news release was accompanied by a photo of the gun Holland was using, which was covered in blood. Tasteless.

Considering that the Portland Police "only" killed two people in the first 11 months of 2023, the fact that they killed three in a six week period starting in December is shocking. It's also notable that PoniaX Calles was shot in July, just prior to the PPB's Body Worn Camera pilot program, and Seavey, Johnson and Holland were all shot after it ended.

Howery's other two shooting incidents were when he shot and killed Alexander Tadros in August 2021 (PPR #85) and when he wounded Antoine Young in November 2022.

Chief Agrees with Police Review Board Discipline for Shooting Incident;
No Problems in Second 2021 Case

Since 2010, the Police Review Board has published reports to the public, usually heavily redacted, for cases in which either deadly force is used or officers face time off without pay. A new report was issued in December. It's exceedingly rare for the PRB to find misconduct in deadly force cases. Even when one officer was fired after a PRB finding,* as with the previous system, officers were cleared of wrongdoing by state arbitrators (PPR #56). The fact that the PRB found Sgt. Staples out of policy for stepping out of his role as a supervisor is also significant because the OIR Group, which has been reviewing deadly force cases in Portland since 2010, repeatedly urged the reviewers to consider whether other officers on scene should have been the ones brandishing weapons instead. It still boggles the mind that the sergeant should not have been holding his weapon, by the logic of the policy violation, but they did not find that his shooting Degerness was wrong. As a reminder, Degerness' car was "bullet riddled" after police shot at it when he crashed the car following a chase. Chief Lovell agreed with the PRB and issued a Letter of Reprimand, technically the lowest form of discipline in Portland. The other involved officer, Kenneth Jackson, was found completely within policy.

A second case from 2021, in which Officer John Hughes shot and killed Brandon Keck while the vehicle he was in was slowly moving forward on the highway (PPR #85), led to no proposed discipline even though it's not clear Keck was presenting an immediate threat to anyone. Rather, the PRB reports the officer shot him because he would not "stand down."

---

Officer Name Release Timeline Inching Downward

After refusing to identify several officers in 2022, the PPB changed their policy on release of officer names from 24 hours to 15 days in April 2023 (PPR #89). The names in the Tyrone Johnson case were released in just 14 days, while the shooter of Matthew Holland was identified in just 13 days. Incidentally, Chief Day told Portland Copwatch that the Department of Justice had approved the extended timeline, but documents show that at most the FBI-- not the Civil Rights division of the DOJ which guides the Settlement Agreement and thus PPB policies-- merely commented that there was a possibility that holding onto the names was keeping officers safe from being doxxed.

---

Wheeler Deflects Blame While Awarding $100,000 to Family of Koben Henriksen

On January 17, City Council voted to give a settlement of $100,000 to the family of Koben Henriksen to partially make up for his wrongful death in 2019. Henriksen was killed by Officer Justin Raphael using an AR-15 rifle seconds after Raphael showed up to address a mental health crisis (PPR #79). He had seen Henriksen just weeks earlier in similar circumstances and his partner calmed Henrikesen down without using force. City Council stayed silent, except for Mayor/Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler, who blamed the County's failed mental health system for Henriksen's death. This was almost a command performance of what Mayor Tom Potter said after James Chasse was beaten to death in 2016 (PPR #41). Wheeler also tried to persuade PCW member Marc Poris to join him in Salem to lobby for more funds for mental health treatment. Uh, how about the City stopping the cops from killing people?

*-Note, it was technically the PRB's precursor, the Use of Force Review Board, that found Officer Ron Frashour out of policy for killing Aaron Campbell in 2010.
Back to text.

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
Back to Portland Copwatch home page
Peace and Justice Works home page
Back to top