Officers Involved In Three Deadly Force Incidents

• None of the officers who have been involved in three deadly force incidents
  are currently active on the PPB.
• Officer Darrell Shaw retired Aug 1, 2021 and accepted employment with OHSU's police force.
• Officer Leo Besner retired Jan 6, 2021.
• Officer Russ Corno retired Aug 21, 2020.

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Deaths: Including people who were killed by gunfire (77), deaths in custody by various means including one who was hit with a Taser (7), people who allegedly killed themselves although hit by police bullets (7), one who supposedly died of smoke inhalation (1) and people who died in car crashes due to police chases (3) there are at least 95 people who died in 93 of the 195 incidents. (Two incidents resulted in the deaths of two people.)

Wounded: Roughly 84 people were injured by Portland Police use of deadly force.

Not hit: At least 20 of the people listed were shot at but not hit by Portland officers.

Pardoned: At least 6 of the officers were disciplined for their roles in these incidents and had their disicpline overturned by arbitrators: Douglas Erickson (shot/wounded Gerald Gratton in 1993), Scott McCollister (shot and killed Kendra James in 2003), Kyle Nice and Christopher Humphreys (caused James Chasse Jr's death in custody 2006), Lt. Jeffrey Kaer (shot and killed Dennis Young in 2006), and Ron Frashour (shot and killed Aaron Campbell in 2010). McCollister, Nice and Humphreys were given time off that was reversed; Erickson, Kaer and Frashour were fired but reinstated.

Not prosecuted: Not a single officer was prosecuted for any of these incidents. Officer Dane Reister was fired successfully after he shot and wounded William Monroe with live rounds loaded in a less-lethal shotgun in 2013. Reister was facing criminal charges when he took his own life in 2015.

Off duty: At least 4 of the shootings (including one fatal shooting) occured while officers were off duty.

Excluded: Portland Copwatch did not include officers who deployed less lethal weapons at deadly force incidents unless those weapons led to a death, so the overall total is actually higher.

Officers Justin Damerville (#51797) and Richard Bailey (#55393) were listed as having shot and killed John Elifritz on Sat, April 7, 2018. Both officers used "less lethal" rounds and were removed from our deadly force list during editing in Oct, 2020.

Other exceptions include Sgt. Bret Burton, who was a Multnomah County Sheriff's Deputy when he and two PPB officers caused the death of James Chasse, Jr. in 2006. Because PCW does not have details on whether other transfers were involved in deadly force before joining the PPB Burton is not represented in the graphic.

Note: This project was inspired by the Intercept's study of Chicago officers involved in shootings from August 2018.
In addition to their graphic, they also posted this article.

Footnotes:

*1- Information last updated November 16, 2023
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*2- Officer Larry Wingfield used a (supposedly banned) choke hold on Jonathan Harris on August 31, 2018. Harris was not injured, but the incident was reviewed as a use of deadly force meaning Wingfield could be seen as involved in three incidents.