Posted on 03/15/2012 10:14:05 AM PDT by marktwain
The man shot by Washington County tactical officers in New Columbia Tuesday night had grabbed a gun because he thought intruders were on his property after his wife had checked on their barking dog in their backyard and saw a stranger in dark clothing.
Alberto Flores-Haro, according to relatives and witnesses, did not know that the men surrounding his home and neighborhood Tuesday night were authorities approaching to raid a residence just a few doors down from his home in the 9500 block of North Woolsey Avenue.
"There was someone in our backyard, and my mom called our stepdad," said Daniel Ibarra. "He told me to go upstairs and get the gun."
Ibarra, 17, said he didn't know where it was, and Flores-Haro followed him up the stairs and retrieved it. Ibarra said a stranger came through the home, and left through the front door.
Neighbor Juan Soto Martinez, 16, who lives across a walkway from Flores-Haro's home, said he heard Flores at his front door yelling with a man, who seemed to be outside, on the side of his house. Then, he heard multiple gunshots.
Ibarra found his stepdad collapsed in the front doorway of their home, shot in one arm and twice in the stomach, and called 9-1-1 about 10 p.m.
" I grabbed a rag and put pressure on his forearm," Ibarra recalled, and told his mother to grab a towel from the kitchen and place pressure on Flores' torso wounds.
GS.51SHOT115-02.jpgView full size Ibarra said his family had no idea that the men surrounding their home in tactical uniforms of army green were from the Washington County Sheriff's Office's Tactical Negotiation Team, who were assisting police.
He said of his dad, "I think he just wanted to scare them away. He didn't know who they were."
While his father lay bleeding, Ibarra said he was ordered out of the house.
"Once I stepped outside, I was ordered to get on the ground," said Ibarra, a Roosevelt High School senior.
He said the rest of his family, his mother and four other children from ages 5 and 13, were ordered to get out of the house, and then tactical officers grabbed his stepdad and carried him to a waiting ambulance.
Flores-Haro, 31, remains in serious condition at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
In a release this afternoon, Portland police said three members of the Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team were involved in the shooting: one Hillsboro police officer and two Washington County Sheriff's deputies.
While Sgt. Pete Simpson said early today "there was an exchange of gunfire,'' police said later this afternoon that detectives have not determined if Flores-Haro fired any shots at police. Police also said that the officers "repeatedly identified themselves as law enforcement officers.''
"Preliminary information released at the scene was than an exchange of gunfire occurred. However, detectives have been searching for shell casings at the scene, which is lined by a heavily wood area. A handgun was recovered at the scene, but detectives have not determined if the man shot at police.''
Mayor Sam Adams also released a statement: "The City takes incidents such as this very seriously. As with any officer-involved shooting, there will be a thorough investigation and we will make sure every element is examined.''
This morning, Portland police have said only that the man shot by officers had approached police with a handgun as officers were getting ready to serve a search warrant at a nearby, unrelated location.
Simpson said this morning that as police prepared to approach an apartment to execute a search warrant that a man from a nearby apartment emerged with a handgun. Simpson did not know if the man fired first or how many shots officers fired. He said only that "there was an exchange of gunfire." No officer was shot.
Police later in the night did serve a search warrant at a home just doors down from Flores' house on North Woolsey Avenue, and arrested Anthony Bagsby, 20, and Cocoa Tapli, 16, who face accusations of attempted aggravated murder in connection with a Sunday night gang-related shooting and robbery on North Woolsey Avenue.
Portland Lt. Robert King declined to release any more details on the officer-involved shooting. He declined to release the name of the man shot, or explain why police were withholding the name. King also declined to answer whether the tactical officers had identified themselves as police outside Flores' home.
Portland had a mobile command center set up at the site through the night, and left about 10 a.m. today.
Many residents in the neighborhood said they got little sleep after they heard the gunshots. Some reported hearing between four and five, others said six or seven.
Martinez, who lives across from Flores' home, said he was watching TV in his living room, and caring for his younger brothers and sisters because their mom wasn't home at the time.
"I heard like four or five shots," Martinez said. When he looked out his window, "Alberto was laying in the front of his home, bleeding."
Martinez said he told his younger siblings to "get down," and then took them to an upstairs bathroom.
Residents in the area described Flores as a family man and a good neighbor, who worked loading trucks. They described him as in his 30s.
"He's a good neighbor," said Maria Bosyuk, who lives next door to Flores. She said her children heard the shooting and couldn't sleep.
"It sounded like three, then three more" shots, said Michelle Clopton, who lives on North Woolsey Avenue.
As she went to call 9-1-1, she heard police shouting commands to someone on a megaphone."The cops were on a loud speaker, saying 'Come out with your hands up!' Clopton said, who kept peeking out her window.
Another resident who asked not to be named said she was lying in bed when she heard six to seven gunshots. "I grabbed my phone to call police and noticed they were already all outside," she said.
scenephoto.jpgView full sizeMaxine Bernstein/The OregonianHome where Alberto Flores-Haro was shot, pictured far right. Building in foreground is location where tactical officers were readying to raid with a search warrant last night. She said the police orders via megaphone came much later, at least an hour or so: "Come out of the house! Do it now!"
An officer instructed her to stay in the back of her house, she said, and she was worried about the many children in the neighborhood.
"I was sitting in my living room and heard a lot of shots," said Dorine Nafziger, a North Woolsey Avenue resident who lives with her husband and 3-year-old son.
She and her husband went upstairs and looked out their back window.
"We saw the big SWAT tank and a lot of officers in army green suits, helmets and shields," Nafziger said.
She got on Facebook to share information with other neighbors to figure out what was going on. At one point , she said she saw police lead five people from a home in handcuffs.
"It freaks us out," Nafziger said. "It's not the first time something like this has happened in our neighborhood." Sonja Andreas said the gunshots came in what she described as two staccato explosions. Then she said, she heard a lot of yelling and screaming.
She called 9-1-1 and said she was told, "Don't worry, there's a police action happening right now."
But Andreas said she didn't see the usual marked police cars, but a large armored vehicle, and men in what looked like military-type garb.
Tactical teams from Portland, Washington and Clackamas counties routinely rely on each other. Simpson said officers on these teams train with each other and are "fairly interchangeable." Washington County's tactical team is comprised of officers from multiple police agencies and was assisting Portland police last night as Portland's tactical team was in training.
Simpson did not know how many officers fired on the suspect or which agencies they represent.
--Maxine Bernstein
It wouldn't be so bad if the law didn't seem to agree with them.
I had an uncle on my mother’s side who was a county deputy for forty years, I never heard of him firing a weapon at anyone. Of course things were different then and he was a monster, about six foot six and over 300 pounds. Most lawbreakers of that day took one look at him and surrendered. Only the most hardened and desperate would have thought of shooting at a deputy and only the foolhardy would have tried to manhandle him. The average man of his time was about half his size. I saw him taking one unfortunate from the county fair grounds when I was a little boy and I felt so sorry for that little guy. My uncle had the poor fellow’s right hand behind his back in a hammerlock and was holding him by the wrist with his left hand, he hadn’t bothered to handcuff the guy. Every time my uncle took a step the man’s feet seemed to come off the ground. Uncle smiled at my parents and me and waved his right hand and told us he didn’t have time to talk as he had to take the guy in.
I think your books give the savvy Patriot a lot to think about. Especially if Zero wins in Nov and things go seriously pear-shaped.
Without people like you in the mix, we are seriously sunk.
Well, that and who can have sex with whom [or what] in which perverted and bizarre way. Liberals finally found a place they don't think the goobermint belongs, dontcha know.
You can call a pile of dog-shite a rose, but I'm still not giving it a deep sniff...
If the police need additional weapons for OMGWTFBBQ situations, call on the local militia. It is what we are supposed to be here for...
The prosecutorial misconduct in the Stevens case is also enormously worrying.
In the past year I have read a couple of stories in the Killeen, TX paper where the police would have been undoubtedly justified in shooting the suspect but handled the situations without doing so. I hope they keep on getting whatever training and guidance it is that keeps them that way.
In Gangster Govt, the reason I went so hard after GS, was to try to provoke a reaction. The only hope we have is to appeal to the honor of some journalists who are not totally whored out like GS. That’s why I kept it simple in Gangster Govt, with the Watergate/FAF comparison, tying in the MSM as complicit partners.
If there are no honest and brave journalists at ABCNNBCBS, we are done for. Sharyl Attkisson comes to mind at CBS, but she is virtually kept in a rubber room, and her bylines are internet only, not on the broadcast news by and large.
It really is as I wrote in GG: Woodward and Bernstein were not allowed to cover Watergate, but were sent to cover Earth Day instead.
I fear we are done for, and our legacy of freedom will soon be a memory.
“Losing my freedom was not the change I hoped for.”
We ain’t dead yet...
The DOJ has become 100% politicized. We have a Gangster Govt, and the MSM is a fully complicit partner.
“Gangster Government, and Sakharov’s Immunity”
http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com/efadGG.htm
Save it for a rainy day. Show it to your children when they ask you, “How did your generation allow our freedom to be lost?”
It’s an old pattern, time-proven, and we are far down the chute.
” As is Issa’s lame attempt at the F&F investigation.”
I read here yesterday, that Boner is trying to silence Issa.
I also noticed that nobody in the House has voiced their solidarity with him.I despise Boner, so this I can believe.
They have more than enough to push over this entire Administration, and they act as if their feet are glued to the floor.
Disgusting.
Where did you receive that information?
Could I see a link to that?
Were are you receiving this information?
Absolutely.
My dog was in AZ......good thing I didn’t resist, or I would have been dog food : )
“There is virtually no more separation between local and federal, it is purely an administrative distinction without a difference.
Local LE is now folded completely into the federal LE tapestry. That was the reason for all of the federal grants to local LE, to make them dependent, no different from a welfare mom on food stamps in section 8 housing.”
This is pretty much what I surmised.....get the locals addicted to money from D.C., then ever so gradually, tighten the noose
Issa, My FRiend, is fighting a lonely, losing battle mostly alone. he is losing because too many powerful individuals do not want him to win. And too few on our side give a damn whether he loses or not. Mostly our side does not give a damn either way. As long as we “don’t lower ourselves to their level”. Translation to that phrase: Drop ones trousers, bend over and grab ones ankles, and enjoy the ride.
Your book, EFAD, illustrates how the power is really in the hands of the citizens, should they choose to use it. There are a lot of 60 year olds who have the expertise to cut the
powers that be down to size, and they have already lived a full life under freedom.
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