Tape details mom's panic in crisis

from The Oregonian, by Kate Taylor


sSUMMARY: Police shooting Hope Glenn tells the dispatcher Lukus is threatening the family and smashing windows
TIGARD -- In the transcript of a 9-1-1 call released Monday evening, the mother of an 18-year-old shot dead by Washington County sheriff's deputies Saturday begs for a quick response because her son is threatening family members and smashing windows at the Garden Home residence.

"He's busting all our house windows. If I shut the door he's already busted our front door," Hope Glenn said of her son, Lukus Glenn. "He just keeps threatening to kill

everybody. . . . He's just not in the right head. . . . He says when the cops get here he's gonna stab himself in the neck."

A review of the tape also indicated that the youth was "out of control" and "was not going down without killing someone," a sheriff's spokesman said. The call ends with police firing their weapons at Lukus Glenn and a dispatcher repeatedly calling the mother's name.

The Washington County sheriff's office also revealed the names of the two officers involved in the shooting --Deputy Mikhail Gerba, 27, and Deputy Timothy Mateski, 26. Both were placed on routine leave while the case is being investigate by the Washington County Major Crimes Team, composed of different police agencies.

They also disclosed that Tigard police Officer Andrew Pastore, 29, came to the scene because he was equipped with a less-than-lethal beanbag shotgun. Several beanbag rounds hit Glenn but appeared to have little or no effect, officials said.

Pastore also was placed on routine leave after the shooting.

But other details surrounding the shooting were not available, including whether Gerba or Mateski carried Tasers or whether results from the autopsy on Glenn were available.

Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon on Monday recounted the facts of the shooting as he understood them: The Garden Home youth would not drop the knife, he ran toward a house, and officers shot him to protect the people inside.

On Monday, Hope Glenn sat on her porch in the middle of a makeshift memorial of delivered flowers and food baskets.

Crying continually, she said police arrived on her lawn shouting threats before they frightened and then shot Lukus Glenn in the early hours of Saturday morning. There, between hugs from friends and well-wishers, she said that her son only ever spoke of hurting himself.

Sheriff's spokesmen on Monday tried to answer the questions raised by Saturday's shooting: Was deadly force needed, and how do police officers make the decision to shoot?

Sheriff's Lt. John Black said officers, in general, approach a threat considering "intent, means and opportunity."

In other words, an officer considers what the threatening person is willing to do, what sort of weapon they have and what ability they have to employ the threat. The officer weighs all those factors before he shoots.

"It's deceptively simple," Black said. "All you have to ask (when considering the situation) is, 'Could a reasonable officer have believed a person posed a lethal threat?' That is the line behind a justified use of lethal force."

Sheriff's spokesman Dave Thompson said Washington County officers --like officers in many police departments --receive a few hours of training focused solely on defusing situations.

However, during the 10 weeks of police academy and months of other training it takes to become a police officer, police-in-training are taught again and again to take the least harmful actions possible when trying to bring a dangerous situation under control, he said.

"It's not like we throw an officer out there and say, 'Here's a gun and badge, go out there,' " Thompson said.

Those awaiting a complete investigation include his distraught mother.

"They just shot and killed him. They killed my only son," she said. "He couldn't ever take it when people shouted at him, and they were shouting 'We're going to kill you, you understand that? We're going to kill you so you better drop the knife.' "

Glenn's friend, 19-year-old David Daniel Lucas, witnessed the shooting and said Monday that he couldn't understand why the police had shot his friend.

"The officers were there, they only heard him threatening himself," Lucas said. "No one ever told the cops he was going to hurt anyone but himself."

On Monday, Gordon promised a full investigation into the case.

"I am personally very saddened by this event," Gordon said. "I have two young sons who mean the world to me and I would be devastated if I lost them. I try to also imagine them as being one of the deputies responding to this event --and the emotional turmoil they would be in had they had to make this very difficult decision in just a few seconds of their life. I'd hope the people they serve would give them the benefit of an open mind until the facts are in."