Investigators: Evidence doesn't support officer's friendly fire claims
HILLSBORO, Ore. – A man is sitting in prison for shooting a Hillsboro police officer but that officer, who is no longer with the police department, claims he was shot by friendly fire during a welfare check gone wrong last year.
Justin Morris, who resigned from the Hillsboro Police Department over a sex scandal, says it was a Washington County Sheriff's deputy who accidentally fired a round from behind that lodged in his upper body. He claims he was shot directly over his spinal cord near the base of his head and neck. But it was Sepp Tokanaga, a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who was sent to prison for the shooting.
Washington County investigators, however, say evidence, that includes a bullet fragment recovered from Morris supports their assertion the bullet came from Tokanaga's gun.
Photos from the ballistics analysis done by the state crime lab show the bullet fragment taken from Morris' body. In one photo that fragment is compared to a fragment that shows the type of bullet the Washington County deputy fired and to another fragment of the World War II-era bullet Tokanaga used.
"When you look at the evidence, it's very clear that Mr. Tokanaga is the one who fired the round that did hit Officer Morris," said Sgt. Bob Ray with the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
Despite notations about damage to Morris' uniform, body vest and shirt in the upper right rear area, the crime lab further concluded the evidence was "consistent with a bullet traveling towards the victim (Morris), front to back," not back to front.
And Morris was facing the home from which Tokanaga fired the rounds.
KATU News obtained home video from a man who captured the standoff between police and Tokanaga. That video, shot by neighbor Dennis Roach, reveals the tense moments at Tokanaga's Hillsboro home. It also shows officers taking up positions behind a car and a portable storage unit in the driveway.
After officers went around the side of the unit and hearing gunshots, Roach said, "Two of them came back – he's grabbing one by the vest (and) pulls him back around."
That wounded officer was Morris.
Morris, also an Army veteran, received a Purple Heart and Medal of Valor for his courage that day. But after resigning, he's fighting to keep his badge.
The Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training will decide Jan. 26 whether Morris' admitted sexual contact with a woman while on duty warrants his badge being stripped for 10 years.