Man dead, officer wounded after shootout
PORTLAND, Ore. - A police officer was wounded and a man was killed Wednesday evening after a traffic stop erupted into gunfire.
The incident happened around 6:20 p.m. when police pulled over a man near Northeast 6th and Clackamas.
Police said the man began fighting with them, pulled a gun and fired at officers, hitting one of them in the groin area. Police returned fire and killed the man who was seen by a KATU News reporter lying in the street at the corner of Northeast 6th and Halsey.
The officer who was shot was taken to Legacy Emanuel Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
He underwent surgery and afterward police said he would be OK. Police said they would not release the officer's name until his family was notified.
Outside the hospital’s emergency room entrance investigators collected evidence from an unmarked police car wrapped in evidence tape.
Police would not confirm if the car belonged to one of the officers who struggled with the suspect before the shooting started.
Evidence technicians spent a half hour combing through the unmarked car.
Police taped off several blocks in the area of the shooting with crime scene tape as they investigated the situation.
Portland Police Bureau's newly-named Police Chief Mike Reese also arrived on the scene.
Witnesses at a nearby Oil Can Henry's said they saw a silver unmarked police car involved in the incident. They said they heard a series of 10 to 12 gunshots, a short pause, and then two shots that sounded like it was from a smaller gun.
They said they knew something was up because the unmarked police car was circling just before the shooting.
Two witnesses told The Associated Press they saw the shooting as they were driving toward the intersection where the man had been stopped.
"His car is right here," said Brent Maxson, pointing from behind yellow tape to a side street about two blocks from the mall, just in front of the Temple Baptist Church.
"There were two police cars in back of him, and the police have their guns drawn telling him to put your hands where we can see them," Maxson said.
He said he was in the line of fire so he quickly drove into a fast food restaurant parking lot to get out of the way.
Karen Moreschi, who said she runs the Sonbeam Daycare Center at the church, was driving up when she saw police with their weapons drawn.
"I heard and saw gunfire," Moreschi said. "I saw an officer go down, stiff legged, and moved himself back to the curb, away from the vehicles. Then he eventually was assisted back into the middle street behind a car, a police car."
Both Moreschi and Maxson said they heard about six to eight gunshots.
"My first thought was the day care," Moreschi said. She stopped in the middle of the street and briefly directed traffic and some bicyclists away from the scene before she ran inside to make sure everybody had gone home, then turn off the lights so nobody could see inside.
A Radio Shack employee said a bullet flew across the street, ricocheted off a sign and landed on the floor of the store. Apparently, a customer picked it up and took it.
The shooting comes on the same day Mayor Sam Adams took control of the police bureau, fired Chief Rosie Sizer, and named Reese the new chief of police.
“It’s been quite a day, and I think right now with an officer being shot it’s a big reminder to everybody just how dangerous this job is and how important this job is,” said Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman Detective Mary Wheat. “Politics are politics but this makes everybody stop and really pay attention and fortunately the officer is OK.”
A large group of protesters dressed mostly in black and wearing masks arrived at the scene of the shooting and circled the taped-off area.
They shouted, “cops, pigs, murderers.”
KATU News reporters Anita Kissée and Bob Heye, KATU News anchor Steve Dunn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
11 p.m. video report: KATU's Anita Kissée overviews the shooting and what witnesses saw:
11 p.m. video report: KATU's Bob Heye reports on the wounded officer's condition: