Posted on 05/05/2003 4:06:11 PM PDT by Henrietta
A Portland police officer shot and killed a woman in her 20s early today when she got behind the wheel of a car and tried to drive off after other officers took the original driver into custody during a traffic stop, police said.
The shooting - the first officer-involved fatality this year - occurred about 2:40 a.m. in the eastbound lane of North Skidmore Street, on the Interstate 5 overpass.
A North Precinct officer pulled over a four-door, dark-blue Chevrolet Cavalier on a traffic stop. Police said today they did not know the reason for the stop. But police said the officer had taken the motorist out of the rental car and was trying to confirm the man's identity as it appeared he was carrying no proof of identification.
As the officer took the motorist into custody and led him to a police car, the woman passenger in the car climbed from a back seat into the driver's seat, according to Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz.
Police said two other North Precinct officers went to the driver's side of the vehicle and struggled with the woman "to keep her from driving away," Schmautz said. One of the officers used a Tazer against the woman.
The Tazer did not subdue the woman, said Cmdr. Jim Ferraris, head of the detective division. The other officer fired one shot from his firearm, striking the woman in the chest, police said.
The car continued east about 70 yards on North Skidmore Street, until it came to a stop, blocked by two patrol cars. The woman was taken by ambulance to Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Police did not release the name of the woman shot or the three officers involved in the stop and shooting.
Portland homicide Detectives George Weatherroy and John Brooks are investigating the shooting. By late this morning, the detectives had not interviewed the three officers involved but did do a quick walk-through of the events with at least one of the officers, Schmautz said.
Investigators also were interviewing the motorist who was stopped initially and a male passenger who was in the car.
Schmautz and Ferraris said they did not know the reason for the initial traffic stop or whether the initial driver had been cited for any violations.
An initial police investigation indicated the officer fired at the woman once the car had run over an officer's foot.
State law and Police Bureau policy states that officers can use deadly force "to protect themselves or others from what they reasonably believe to be an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury."
Outside experts hired by the city are conducting a review of 27 Portland police shootings that occurred between January 1997 and July 2000. The Police Assessment Resource Center, a nonprofit agency led by Los Angeles attorney Merrick Bobb, will compare the bureau's use of deadly force, its firearms policies and training with other law enforcement agencies and will identify areas for improvement. The review is expected to be completed in July.
But that is no reason to shoot to kill. The article doesn't give any indication she was a threat to the officers.
I want to be supportive of police but some a-holes with badges make it awfully difficult.
"Outside experts hired by the city are conducting a review of 27 Portland police shootings that occurred between January 1997 and July 2000" - probably everybody in Portland.
Just another 'civilian' killed here. Nothing to see. Move along.
I met a guy once who does defensive combat training for cops.. he said tazers are crap and often don't work through clothing...
Thanks for the info. I was under the impression they were pretty powerful. I remember during the Rodney King hoopla part of the justification for the force used was that the tazer had virtually no effect.
I suppose if you're trying to keep the police from getting the goods on you a tazer has lesser impact than it might on someone with nothing to hide. I realize I'm reading into the story stuff that isn't there but newspaper accounts can be slanted and sometimes it doesn't hurt to read between the lines. I'm thinking the woman had something to hide but that still doesn't justify the police action.
Oops.. taser. Basically, electric shock guns. They're supposed to incapacitate.
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