from The Oregonian, by Holly Danks
Washington County's homicides in 2006 nearly doubled from the previous year, due in part to a triple murder in Bethany and three police shootings.
Eleven people died at the hands of another in 2006, compared with six in 2005 and 10 in 2004. During the past six years, the county's annual homicide toll has averaged eight.
A change from past years is the absence of victims of domestic violence. "There was a time when half or more of the homicides were domestic violence," said District Attorney Robert W. Hermann, who has been a prosecutor for 31 years.
Homicides related to domestic violence "seem to have gone down over the years," Hermann said. He credited aggressive prosecution of domestic abuse cases and a restraining order program that confiscates guns.
But no program, Hermann said, could have saved Melody Dang and her sons, Steven and Jimmy. Investigators say the Dangs' killer was not someone in the family or even someone who knew them.
"Fortunately, it's something that we hardly ever see," Hermann said of the multiple murders. "Even the ones you read about tend to be family members."
The last triple murder in the county was in 1990, when Yoshio Morimoto of Beaverton killed his wife and two young children. Morimoto pleaded guilty during his 1992 trial and was sentenced to life in prison.
Charges were not filed in 2006's three police shootings, because the district attorney's office determined the shootings were justified.
Also, charges of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide were not filed in the deaths of the four bicyclists killed by cars in 2006. Prosecutors and the grand jury determined the deaths were accidental, not criminal.
However, the district attorney's office charged six drivers with manslaughter in fatal crashes that killed their passengers or people in other vehicles. A jury found one guilty and two others pleaded guilty; trials are pending early in 2007 for the three remaining drivers.
Two more potential vehicular manslaughter cases are under district attorney review.
Here are the 11 Washington County homicides from 2006:
* Juan Humberto Rincon Cruz, 25, was shot to death March 25 in the parking lot of the Center Plaza Apartments in Beaverton. Police think the shots, which killed Rincon Cruz and wounded a friend after they left an apartment, were fired by people in a sport utility vehicle. Unsolved.
* Theodore Faulkner, 27, of Hillsboro was shot in the head May 27 by his friend, Dustin Eugene Ceballos, 30, of Banks, while the two sat in a parked car in Forest Grove. Police said both men were drunk and playing with a loaded gun. Ceballos pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced Nov. 20 to five years' probation.
* Dulce Hernandez Onofre, 19 months, of Hillsboro died Aug. 2 after doctors at a Portland hospital declared her brain dead and took her off life support. Ramon Rodriguez Moreno, 27, of Hillsboro was arrested Aug. 1 after taking the child, who was his girlfriend's daughter, to the emergency room with a fractured skull. He is in the Washington County Jail on $250,000 bail, awaiting his May 15 trial for felony murder.
* William Johnson, 4 months, died of head injuries at a Portland hospital Sept. 9, two days after paramedics were called to his Cedar Mill home, when the baby wasn't breathing. The baby's father, Shawn Thornton Johnson Jr., 29, is in the Washington County Jail without bail on a charge of felony murder, awaiting his Sept. 7 trial.
* Lukus Glenn, 18, died Sept. 16 after being shot eight times by two Washington County sheriff's deputies outside his Tigard-area home. Glenn's family called 9-1-1 after the drunken teen, armed with a pocket knife, broke windows and made threats. When Glenn refused to put down the knife and moved toward the house, deputies fatally shot him. The district attorney's office upheld the deputies' actions and declined to send the case to a grand jury. The Glenn family and friends have called for a public hearing into the shooting.
* Neil Bruce Marcy, 45, of Forest Grove was shot to death Oct. 8 by officers from the Forest Grove and Cornelius police departments after he confronted them with a gun in each hand outside the College Place Apartments. The district attorney's office concluded the shooting was a suicide, because Marcy wanted police to kill him.
* Jordan Laird Case, 20, died Oct. 21 after being shot in the head by a Washington County sheriff's deputy. A Tualatin woman called 9-1-1 after awakening to find Case in her apartment. She and her 8-year-old daughter had to fight him off before police arrived. When Case reached inside the deputy's patrol car and tried to grab a locked gun, he was fatally shot. The woman told police that Case had said he was high on psychedelic mushrooms. The district attorney's office ruled the shooting justified.
* Melody Dang, 37, and her sons, Steven, 15, and Jimmy, 12, died of gunshot wounds Nov. 2 in their Bethany-area home. A month later, investigators arrested Ricardo Serrano, 31, of Aloha. Court documents indicate Serrano's wife was having an affair with Melody Dang's longtime live-in boyfriend, who was at work the night of the murders and found the bodies when he came home. Investigators say Serrano wanted the boyfriend to suffer and planned also to kill him. Serrano is charged with 10 counts of aggravated murder, and his death penalty trial is set for Feb. 12, 2008.
* Fleeta Sheely, 62, of Hillsboro had terminal cancer and was shot to death by her husband, Richard Sheely, 64, who then shot and killed himself in their Jackson Creek home. A co-worker of Fleeta Sheely's found their bodies in their bed on Nov. 15. Police said the door was open, and their wills and obituaries were laid out.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Police: Shot boy was suicidal
from The Oregonian, by Holly Danks and David R. Anderson
Washington County sheriff's investigators say a 14-year-old boy who was shot by a deputy had taken his father's high-velocity semiautomatic rifle out of an unlocked gun safe, loaded it with steel-cased, full metal jacket bullets and sped off in the family car late Monday after everyone else was in bed.
Authorities continued Tuesday to look into details surrounding the shooting of Brandon Scruggs, an eighth-grader at Conestoga Middle School in Beaverton. They said Scruggs was suicidal Monday night when he jumped from the car so quickly, holding the loaded rifle, that the deputy had little time to react.
Scruggs was in stable condition Tuesday at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, said Sgt. Michael O'Connell, a sheriff's detective who leads the county's Major Crimes Team.
He declined to say where Scruggs was hit or how many times, citing the investigation's preliminary status. Because of federal regulations, hospital representatives would not comment.
O'Connell said Scruggs told medical personnel he pointed his rifle at the deputy because "I wanted him to shoot me, I wanted to die."
O'Connell said Scruggs' parents --Glenn and Valerie Scruggs --"have no idea why he would do this, they're perplexed." He said they did not know Scruggs was missing Monday night or had taken their stick-shift Volkswagen.
Scruggs' parents could not be reached for comment Tuesday by The Oregonian.
Sheriff's Sgt. David Thompson said a deputy pulled over a car without taillights that was speeding west along Southwest Tualatin Valley Highway shortly after 11:30 p.m. Monday near Southeast 75th Avenue, in an unincorporated area near Hillsboro's southeast corner.
The deputy, whose name was not released, called for backup and told the driver to stay in the car, which had pulled about 30 feet onto 75th Avenue.
Instead, O'Connell said, the driver "came bolting out of that car with a rifle in his hands holding it in a threatening manner."
The deputy backed a few feet behind his patrol car and fired because he thought his life was in danger, O'Connell said.
"It all happened very quickly," he said.
The deputy, who was placed on paid administrative leave as is routine in officer-involved shootings, was to be interviewed today. Both the deputy and Scruggs were alone in their vehicles, investigators said.
Scruggs did not fire his rifle, but O'Connell said it was loaded with ammunition that would "easily pierce a police vest."
Thompson added that such a round fired from a high-velocity SKS "would go through a car."
O'Connell said Scruggs and his father had gone target shooting with the weapon in the past week.
"He knew it was more than just a pop gun," O'Connell said.
Scruggs is expected to face charges when he is released from the hospital.
Monday night's incident was the third in the past five months in which Washington County sheriff's deputies shot someone.
Lukus Glenn, 18, died Sept. 16 after two deputies shot him eight times when he threatened them, himself and his family with a knife outside his Tigard home. Jordan Case, 20, died Oct. 21 after a sheriff's deputy shot him when he broke into a neighbor's Tualatin apartment, then ran to a patrol car and tried to grab a gun.
Shocked neighbors on Southwest Bristlecone Way south of Beaverton and west of Tigard, said Scruggs was quiet, didn't cause trouble and seemed happy.
They said Scruggs often went hunting and fishing with his father. The boy had a hunting license; anyone younger than 18 has to take a safety class and carry a state Hunter Education certificate when hunting off family private property.
"He was always very nice, always very polite," said Lori Brush, who lives five houses from the Scruggses.
Conestoga Middle School students who live in Scruggs' neighborhood said the boy loves to skateboard and hopes to become a professional.
"He's cool with his friends," said Stilyan Slavov, a seventh-grader. "He's nice."
Scruggs didn't talk much of guns, his friends said, and didn't seem depressed.
"I didn't think Brandon would do anything like this," said Henry Taylor, a seventh-grader.
Anyone with information about the shooting or Scruggs is asked to call the Washington County Sheriff's Office at 503-846-2700.
"We are very interested in talking with anyone who might know why he was so troubled," O'Connell said. "We want to know what he was doing in Reedville and what was so bad about his life that he felt he needed police to shoot him."
Washington County sheriff's investigators say a 14-year-old boy who was shot by a deputy had taken his father's high-velocity semiautomatic rifle out of an unlocked gun safe, loaded it with steel-cased, full metal jacket bullets and sped off in the family car late Monday after everyone else was in bed.
Authorities continued Tuesday to look into details surrounding the shooting of Brandon Scruggs, an eighth-grader at Conestoga Middle School in Beaverton. They said Scruggs was suicidal Monday night when he jumped from the car so quickly, holding the loaded rifle, that the deputy had little time to react.
Scruggs was in stable condition Tuesday at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center, said Sgt. Michael O'Connell, a sheriff's detective who leads the county's Major Crimes Team.
He declined to say where Scruggs was hit or how many times, citing the investigation's preliminary status. Because of federal regulations, hospital representatives would not comment.
O'Connell said Scruggs told medical personnel he pointed his rifle at the deputy because "I wanted him to shoot me, I wanted to die."
O'Connell said Scruggs' parents --Glenn and Valerie Scruggs --"have no idea why he would do this, they're perplexed." He said they did not know Scruggs was missing Monday night or had taken their stick-shift Volkswagen.
Scruggs' parents could not be reached for comment Tuesday by The Oregonian.
Sheriff's Sgt. David Thompson said a deputy pulled over a car without taillights that was speeding west along Southwest Tualatin Valley Highway shortly after 11:30 p.m. Monday near Southeast 75th Avenue, in an unincorporated area near Hillsboro's southeast corner.
The deputy, whose name was not released, called for backup and told the driver to stay in the car, which had pulled about 30 feet onto 75th Avenue.
Instead, O'Connell said, the driver "came bolting out of that car with a rifle in his hands holding it in a threatening manner."
The deputy backed a few feet behind his patrol car and fired because he thought his life was in danger, O'Connell said.
"It all happened very quickly," he said.
The deputy, who was placed on paid administrative leave as is routine in officer-involved shootings, was to be interviewed today. Both the deputy and Scruggs were alone in their vehicles, investigators said.
Scruggs did not fire his rifle, but O'Connell said it was loaded with ammunition that would "easily pierce a police vest."
Thompson added that such a round fired from a high-velocity SKS "would go through a car."
O'Connell said Scruggs and his father had gone target shooting with the weapon in the past week.
"He knew it was more than just a pop gun," O'Connell said.
Scruggs is expected to face charges when he is released from the hospital.
Monday night's incident was the third in the past five months in which Washington County sheriff's deputies shot someone.
Lukus Glenn, 18, died Sept. 16 after two deputies shot him eight times when he threatened them, himself and his family with a knife outside his Tigard home. Jordan Case, 20, died Oct. 21 after a sheriff's deputy shot him when he broke into a neighbor's Tualatin apartment, then ran to a patrol car and tried to grab a gun.
Shocked neighbors on Southwest Bristlecone Way south of Beaverton and west of Tigard, said Scruggs was quiet, didn't cause trouble and seemed happy.
They said Scruggs often went hunting and fishing with his father. The boy had a hunting license; anyone younger than 18 has to take a safety class and carry a state Hunter Education certificate when hunting off family private property.
"He was always very nice, always very polite," said Lori Brush, who lives five houses from the Scruggses.
Conestoga Middle School students who live in Scruggs' neighborhood said the boy loves to skateboard and hopes to become a professional.
"He's cool with his friends," said Stilyan Slavov, a seventh-grader. "He's nice."
Scruggs didn't talk much of guns, his friends said, and didn't seem depressed.
"I didn't think Brandon would do anything like this," said Henry Taylor, a seventh-grader.
Anyone with information about the shooting or Scruggs is asked to call the Washington County Sheriff's Office at 503-846-2700.
"We are very interested in talking with anyone who might know why he was so troubled," O'Connell said. "We want to know what he was doing in Reedville and what was so bad about his life that he felt he needed police to shoot him."
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