Police shooting 'legally justified'

The Oregonian, by Dana Tims and Kate Taylor


SUMMARY: Lukus Glenn The district attorney finds no cause for a grand jury in the death of a Tigard-area young man
HILLSBORO --The Washington County district attorney's office finished investigating the Sept. 16 shooting death of a Tigard-area youth Wednesday, calling the incident "tragic" but "legally justified."

Lukus Glenn's family, however, is not done with the case. On Wednesday, his mother and attorney criticized the decision and said they are considering a lawsuit.

As sheriff's officials launched an administrative review into deadly force policies and training Wednesday, members of the Glenn family renewed their call for a public inquest. They said they were disappointed that a grand jury would not look into the incident in which two Washington County sheriff's deputies shot and killed Glenn, 18, after he refused to put down a knife.

Hope Glenn called 9-1-1 about 3 a.m. that morning, saying her son was drunk, out of control and threatening the family. Minutes later, three officers arrived at the family's house. When the youth refused to drop the knife, an officer shot him with bean bags before the deputies opened fire as he moved toward the home.

"We're disappointed with the decision," said Larry K. Peterson, attorney for the Glenn family. He said he plans today to say more about the district attorney's decision and added that "all options are open" when asked whether the family plans to file a civil lawsuit.

The district attorney's office released several hundred pages of investigative notes, charts, interviews and medical reports Wednesday morning detailing the days, and minutes, that culminated in Glenn's early morning death.

"I have concluded that the shooting of Mr. Glenn, while tragic, was legally justified," wrote Rob Bletko, the county's chief deputy district attorney, in a letter to Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon.

"The material facts surrounding the shooting are not in dispute. There is no good reason to believe that the deputies committed a crime, and therefore a grand jury review in this case is not warranted."

In a separate interview Wednesday, Bletko said he could find no legal basis for holding the public inquest Peterson called for late last week.

Statutory provisions for public inquests rest largely on whether key facts are in question, Bletko said. Those most often focus on disputes over the identity of the deceased, the determination of where and when a person died, and the cause and manner of death.

"In this particular case," he said, "all of the questions at issue are very clear. The medical examiner's report and supporting documents answer every one of those."

Peterson, however, said family members and friends of Glenn's, who were present during the brief but heated encounter with deputies Mikhail Gerba and Tim Mateski and Tigard police patrol officer Andrew Pastore, disagree with a number of the investigation's findings.

They dispute, for instance, deputies' contention that Glenn was shot only after he started running toward the house, where his mother, father and grandmother looked on.

Hope Glenn, Lukus Glenn's mother, said on Wednesday that her son was slowly staggering, not running, toward the house's front door. She has in the past told investigators that her son was trying to move around the side of the house to get away from the bean bags.

In interviews with investigators, all three officers at the scene said that Glenn, armed with a knife, either "ran" or "bolted" toward the house, even after Pastore shot him with at least five nonlethal bean bag rounds.

Shots' timing questioned

Family members and friends also said that the brief pause between the bean bags and the bullets was far too short for the officers to adequately evaluate the effects of the bean bags.

"They both shot simultaneously," Hope Glenn said. "You can hear that on the (9-1-1) tape."

Gerba, explaining why he opened fire so soon after the bean bags were used, again referred to Lukus Glenn's speed moving toward the residence, telling investigators, "I felt that we were either going to have a hostage situation or he was going to kill somebody in the house."

The bean bags themselves, he said, appeared to have little or no effect on Glenn.

"From what I looked at it, it looked like somebody just tossed something and just bounced off of him," Gerba said.

He added that the situation escalated so quickly that the officers had no time to discuss tactics or defensive strategies, such as positioning themselves between Glenn and the house or ordering the family to evacuate the house through a back door.

"I'm thinking, let's wait for more officers to get here," Gerba told investigators. "We need to come up with a plan."

Only seconds later, the fatal shots were fired, with Gerba shooting four times and Mateski seven. A total of eight bullets struck Glenn, according to medical reports, with two of those shots doing enough damage to be fatal.

Sheriff starts review

The Washington County Sheriff's Office has launched an administrative review into the shooting, said Chief Deputy Pat Garrett.

Since the district attorney's office determined the deputies violated no laws, the review will address additional or different tools, training or policies that could be used to help with similar situations, Garrett said.

The sheriff's office, he added, will consider bringing in nationally recognized experts and may accept suggestions from the public on the scope of the review.

Lt. John Black, the sheriff's training leader and expert in the use of force, said the failure of the bean bags to disable Glenn will be studied. He described the bean bags as 2-inch-wide bags filled with pellets that are packed into a shotgun and, when fired, travel at a rate of more than 400 feet per second.

"It's like getting hit with a hardball," Black said.

Deputies Gerba and Mateski returned to work several days ago, said Sgt. Michael O'Connell, head of the county's Major Crimes Team. Both deputies have received department-provided psychological assistance considered mandatory following fatal shootings, he said. They will continue to be evaluated in coming months.

"It's clear the events of the night of the 16th have been and will continue to be devastating to everyone involved," Garrett said.

Holly Danks of The Oregonian staff contributed to this story.