Deputy kills man who grabs for rifle

from The Oregonian, by Lisa Grace Lednicer


SUMMARY: Tualatin Officers say an apartment intruder fights, then breaks away despite Taser use and beanbag rounds
TUALATIN --A Washington County sheriff's deputy shot and killed an intruder early Sunday morning after Taser shocks and beanbag rounds failed to subdue him, and the man tried to reach for the officer's weapon, police said.

Deputies were still trying to identify the man Sunday afternoon, said Sgt. David Thompson, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The incident began shortly before midnight when the man broke into a woman's apartment, Thompson said.

The fatal shooting was the second involving Washington County deputies in recent weeks, following the Sept. 16 shooting of 18-year-old Lukus Glenn outside his parents' Metzger home.

Thompson gave the following account of Sunday's incident at the Woodridge apartment complex:

Just before 11:50 p.m. Saturday, a 29-year-old woman awoke on the couch of her ground-floor apartment in the 11900 block of Southwest Tualatin Road and found a man touching her. She ordered him to leave.

When the man refused, the woman grabbed her cell phone and ran into her 8-year-old daughter's bedroom at the back of the apartment. She leaned against the door to keep it shut, but the man overpowered her, followed her into the room and began attacking her. Nevertheless, the woman was able to call 9-1-1, Thompson said. She sustained minor injuries, and her daughter was not hurt.

A Tualatin police officer responded to the call, fought with the man --who had taken a kitchen knife from the apartment --and fired a Taser gun to shock him, to no effect, Thompson said. Next, a Sherwood police officer arrived and ordered the man to the ground. When he refused to obey, the officer fired beanbag rounds at the man, which didn't slow him.

As the fight spilled out of the apartment, the man ran across Southwest Tualatin Road onto a grassy knoll. When a Washington County sheriff's deputy arrived, the man ran toward him. The deputy ordered him to stop, but he didn't, so the deputy fired a Taser gun.

Undeterred, the man opened the driver's side door and tried to grab an MP-5 rifle mounted between the front seats, Thompson said. The deputy shot the intruder several times, and the man slumped against the side of the car, then reached inside again. The deputy shot him, and the man collapsed outside the car and died, Thompson said.

Thompson declined to release the names of the woman and the three officers. The officers are on paid administrative leave while officials investigate the incident.

It was not known how the man entered the woman's apartment. The woman told police she did not know him.

The apartment complex is on a stretch of Southwest Tualatin Road lined with office parks and young trees. The complex has a pool and playground, and residents said violent events such as Sunday morning's are atypical.

"Every once in a while you get a police car, but nothing major like this," said Claudia Thomas, a retired bookkeeper who lives at the complex. "It's usually pretty quiet."