Standing alongside police accountability advocates outside City Hall this morning, the mother of a suicidal man who was shot in the back by Portland police in January 2010 explained why she settled a federal case for $1.2 million just days before trial and then called for structural reforms in how cops are trained on the use of lethal force.

"I don't want to relive this again. It hurts," said Marva Davis, mother of Aaron Campbell, when asked why she settled instead of enduring a court battle against the city of Portland that was supposed to begin February 7.

Davis was joined by her attorney, Tom Steenson, and members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform. Steenson, in the wake of last week's settlement, has called for the police bureau to remedy what appears to be a gap in rhetoric about use of deadly force from police brass like Chief Mike Reese and what the bureau's actual trainers are teaching.

A story in the Oregonian, posted last night, looked at court documents from early January that showed several bureau trainers had been preparing to testify that Reese was wrong when he fired the cop who shot Campbell, Ron Frashour, in November 2010.

The reason? They say Frashour's decision to shoot Campbell, who flinched and ran off when he was hit by a beanbag gun while surrendering to police, was precisely the one he was trained to make. As it stands, they tell cops that suspects don't need to be pointing a gun, as Reese has indicated, to be justifiably shot.

"The AMA Coalition stands in support of the recommendations that have come out of the civil suit to help reform the Portland Police Bureau, especially the contradiction between policy and training within the bureau," said Pastor LeRoy Haynes, the AMA's director.

Haynes also urged that the US Department of Justice, currently investigating how Portland cops use force, address that discrepancy in whatever recommendations it produces.

"Let us use this historical moment in a positive way to transform the Portland Police Bureau," he said.

• Jon Sperry
• Aaron Campbell was shot by an officer in the back two years ago.

Mayor Sam Adams sent out a brief statement formally apologizing to Campbell's family: "Today’s settlement does not erase the Campbell family’s pain, nor does it bring back their father, son, brother, and cousin—and for that, I am very sorry."

Campbell's mother Marva Davis sent out a heart-wrenching letter about the settlement just minutes ago. Here's an excerpt and the whole thing (pdf):

We are told that this is the most money that the city insurer has ever paid out on a claim against the Portland Police Bureau, although in truth it does not seem like enough for the losses we have suffered. We are grateful, however, that we will not have to relive the events of that awful time, and reopen those wounds again. We are also grateful for the support that we have received from family, friends and members of the community who have supported us throughout.

We take to heart that officer-involved shootings have gone down in Portland since Aaron was killed, and choose to believe that in some measure, losing him has made our community safer from those we've armed with guns, and entrusted with the community's safety.

However, this needs to be said. During the case, our attorneys uncovered some very troubling information regarding our police policies and practices.

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The Portland Police Bureau has released the early findings from this morning's autopsy of Bradley Lee Morgan, the 21-year-old despondent man who was shot at by a pair of police officers early Wednesday after calling 911 to to say he had just committed a robbery and was thinking of jumping from a downtown parking garage.

The officers who shot at Morgan—after police say he pointed what turned out to be a replica handgun at them—fired several times. But only one of those bullets hit and killed him, according to the state medical examiner's office.

Police have not reported how many shots were fired yet, keeping that information close while detectives prepare an investigation that will be turned over a Multnomah County grand jury for review. A diagram in this morning's Oregonian showed seven spent casings marked on the roof the SmartPark garage, with police reporting two more found away from the garage.

The bureau also identified the two officers: Sergeant John Holbrook, who's been with the bureau 15 years, and Officer David Scott, who has nine years of service in Portland. Both work the night shift at Central Precinct. They were talking to Morgan, waiting for Project Respond and specially trained negotiators to arrive and take over, in the moments before they shot him. Both are on paid leave, routine after an officer-involved shooting.

The O also tracked down Morgan's relatives, and their comments are worth a read. They paint a picture of despondent man struggling with domestic issues—and suicidal thoughts—for months.

• Bradley Lee Morgan

According to the police timeline, that replica handgun was found in Morgan's hand more than two hours after he first called 911 for help. Morgan became the first person shot dead by a police officer since January 2, 2011, when two officers shot and killed Tom Higginbotham in an abandoned Southeast carwash. And, like every single one of the people shot and killed by Portland officers since at least 2010, he showed signs of having a mental illness.

"Prior to today’s shooting, it had been over a year since a Portland police officer killed a civilian," Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland said in a statement sent out soon just as the police released the new information, suggesting the span was "the longest without a police-caused death in Portland's history." Update: Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch corrects this to note that the longest such span in recent memory stretched from May 15, 2008, to January 29, 2010.

"That this is notable at all," he continued, "highlights a serious problem in the way Portland police interact with citizens, especially those citizens with active mental illness and/or untreated addiction."

Sergeant Pete Simpson, a bureau spokesman, told the Mercury the call would not have triggered a still-in-the-works policy change that aims to send "nonthreatening" suicide calls over to social workers instead of police, because Morgan told dispatchers he had a weapon.

Police say they surged out to check two nearby garages that fit that scenario, the SmartPark garage at SW 10th and Morrison and the SmartPark garage at SW 4th and Morrison—the garage where Morgan eventually was found. But when Morgan saw police, he told dispatchers he didn't want to go with them. Earlier in the call, police say, he answered "possibly" when asked whether he had a gun and used the phrase "suicide by cop."

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• Police mobile unit at SW 3rd and Alder

UPDATE 11:30AM— Mayor Adams has a quick statement on the shooting that doesn't say much of anything:

“This morning, I visited the scene of an officer-involved shooting at a parking garage at SW 4th and Morrison. Police Chief Mike Reese briefed me on the preliminary shooting details. There is more work to be done on the investigation into the circumstances and details of this incident, including a grand jury proceeding. As the Police Bureau does with any investigation, we will look for opportunities to learn from this incident.”

UPDATE 10:33AM—The police sent out a slightly more detailed description of the incident. From their release:

At some point after requesting Crisis Negotiation Team and Project Respond, two officers fired shots at the man and he dropped out of sight. The man was on top an elevated roof on the southwest corner of the parking structure roof. This area is surrounded by a low wall preventing a full view of the rooftop.

Not knowing if the man was hit by gunfire or if he was simply hiding behind the wall, officers called for the Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) to respond to develop a safe plan to approach the man.

SERT responded and through the assistance of Portland Fire & Rescue and the Metropolitan Explosives Disposal Unit (MEDU), able to safely approach the man and determined that he was deceased and that he was armed with a weapon.

ORIGINAL POST:
A reportedly armed man who called 911 and threatened to jump from the SmartPark garage at SW Third and Morrison died after shots were fired in a confrontation with police early this morning, according to several news outlets briefed by police after the shooting.

The shooting marks the first fatal officer-involved shooting in just more than a year, and it comes amid an ongoing federal probe into how the bureau uses force against the mentally ill.

The still-unidentified man called dispatchers at 3:15, said he had committed a robbery and then made his threat to jump. The man showed off a gun during a confrontation with the first officers who showed. The Oregonian says officers shot at him "at some point," while the bureau's hostage negotiation team and Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT)—specialty units that usually preside over standoffs and tense situations—were still on the way.

But KPTV reports "it wasn't immediately clear what led police to open fire, and it's not known if he was actually hit by the gunfire. Police also haven't substantiated the man's claim that he committed a robbery." KATU says the man "did not fire at officers."

The man apparently "dropped out of site," everyone reported, and was found dead atop an elevator shaft by SERT officers who had to borrow ladders from the fire bureau. The O notes that the callout included Police Chief Mike Reese his two assistant chiefs, Larry O'Dea and Eric Hendricks.

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It's all so predictable. Yesterday, Commissioner Dan Saltzman, churning up a heavy-handed media stir, called the cancellation of a fitness premium handed to hundreds of cops merely for subjecting to a blood test. And today, Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association, issued his own bombastic statement ripping into both Saltzman and the Oregonian article that set the commissioner off.

The nastiest paragraph in Turner's statement, posted on the PPA's website:

Commissioner Saltzman’s knee jerk reaction to the misinformation from a recent article in The Oregonian is symptomatic of the disconnect between the Portland Police Association and Commissioner Saltzman. Commissioner Saltzman has displayed an amazing lack of restraint in publicly pronouncing his desire that the City violate a contract with the PPA. His displaced anger is also surprising. If he feels that high ranking City officials deceived him about this fitness premium, he should take it up with those officials. Instead, he wants to penalize the hard working police officers who have negotiated for a legally binding benefit. That is symptomatic of the failing labor relations in this City and across the country—when all else fails, penalize the worker. That is simply unacceptable. Commissioner Saltzman’s resolution to breach a legally binding agreement is irresponsible. He should stop poisoning the labor relations in this City.

But Turner also raised an interesting point—bringing to light the real reason the city backed away from the physical fitness tests officials thought they were imposing on cops: Miscommunication. High-level miscommunication. Despite a lot of closed-door meetings.

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It's tucked all the way at the end of the latest (and still unceremoniously quiet) release of Police Review Board reports: After a meeting last fall, the discipline panel—which reviews cases and advises Chief Mike Reese on punishment—overwhelmingly found every aspect of the May 2010 police shooting of Keaton Otis "within policy."

Otis' death, you'll remember, was steeped in controversy. Otis, a young African-American suffering from mental illness, was stopped by gang enforcement officers who thought he looked suspicious because he was slouching in his car. Otis was Tasered and shot dead, amid an eruption of gunfire that left an officer injured (with the Skanner wondering, at one point, whether that injury was from friendly fire). Then, in an awful turn, Otis' body, lying on the road, was hit three times with a bean bag shotgun.

The shooting came the very first day Reese took over as chief, and it will be Reese who will ultimately decide if any discipline may yet be meted out, despite the review board's nearly unanimous recommendation against it. Only one member raised any formal blemish, questioning whether shooting Otis' body with a bean bag gun was excessive. General questions also were raised about documentation of witness interviews.

The board did, however, recommend that the bureau use the case as a training exercise.

Otis' case wasn't the only prominent one contained in the reports.

The latest packet, the second ever, also includes scathing review board filings recommending discipline for Sergeant Kyle Nice, sued over a 2010 pistol-waving road-rage incident; Officer Scott Westerman, the former union president fired last summer after he was accused of lying to investigators probing a pair of road-rage incidents involving the same woman; two off-duty officers who enjoyed free "private dances" at a strip club they usually patrol on-duty; officers involved in DUIIs; and officers who crashed their service cars.

Update 9:35 PM: Police report that they've arrested the man in the standoff, after firing tear gas into the home after negotiators tried and failed to coax him out. Police say the man was taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries, possibly suffered during the car crash and chase that preceded the standoff. According to the cops:

Crisis Negotiators attempted to make contact with the suspect by loud-hailing the house and calling various phone numbers. Negotiators were able to learn of the suspects identity from information received at the scene.

After approximately 2 hours of attempting to get the suspect to answer the phone or leave the house, SERT deployed chemical munitions into the residence at approximately 7:15 p.m.

Within 5 minutes of the house filling with gas, the suspect came to the front door and crawled out to officers giving commands. The suspect was taken into custody and was transported to an area hospital with minor injuries.

Update 5:15 PM: KGW has the backstory behind what still seems to be a standoff with police in way, way outer Southeast:

Police spokesman Sergeant Pete Simpson "said an officer tried to pull over a car believed to be stolen on SE Foster Road, when the driver took off and later crashed the car near SE 158th and Foster.

A short time later, neighbors on SE Martins reported a bloody man on their porch. The two people from the home left the scene. One was injured, although there were no reports of anybody hit with gunfire.

As officers arrived, two shots were reported to have come from the house where the suspect was believed to be. Neighbors were asked to stay indoors, police said.

KATU says one of the shots fired from the house nearly hit officers and also reports that hostage negotiators are talking to the suspect, who's still in the house.

Update 4:10 PM: Not long after this first post, the Oregonian said there were reports of someone in custody after police surrounded the house and that cops are "continuing to investigate if the gunshots were at officers or the result of a confrontation inside the residence."

Original post starts here: This just flashed over from the Portland Police Bureau:

The Portland Police Bureau's Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) is responding to a man shooting at police officers from a residence in the 15800 of Southeast Martins Street.

SERT is Portland's version of the SWAT team—they don't show up unless it's serious. And this is serious. Stay tuned to this space for more details.

Bowing to a federal probe into how its officers use force, the Portland Police Bureau last night announced a serious new regimen for what will happen the few hundred times a year when cops injure someone or do something like use a Taser, tackle someone, swing a baton, fire a beanbag gun, etc.

Starting January 15, a police sergeant will show up and immediately interview the officer(s) involved and any witnesses, and take photos. And then the sergeant will write an "after-action" report that includes a recommendation on whether the cop who used force did so according to the bureau's rules. Under current procedures, only the officer who uses force will write an immediate report, with a sergeant reviewing that document later.

The new review, however, will not apply to the 600 or so times a year an officer points a gun at someone. Which is an unfortunate omission. Because pointing a gun is the most decisive step there is toward using a gun.

Still, it's a good step for the bureau—which acknowledged that other cities were doing a better job tracking use of force by officers. The city already has similar reviews in place for vehicle pursuits and officer-involved shootings, and this shows the bureau (whether on its own or because the Justice Department told it to) is getting more serious about cracking down on potential abuses when it comes to other physical police tactics.

"It's a combination of both the investigation itself, feedback we've gotten, and because we see it as proactive management practice," Lieutenant Robert King, a bureau spokesman, told me last night.

But will it work? Will it be effective?

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