After listening to testimony and deliberating late into the night, a Multnomah County grand jury Tuesday night found no criminal wrongdoing by the Portland officer who shot and killed Aaron M. Campbell on Jan. 29.
The jurors, however, did identify some troublesome issues from the testimony they heard, and will work Wednesday to draft a letter outlining those to the Portland Police Bureau."The grand jury has some concerns,'' Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk said late Tuesday night. "They want to communicate some things to the police bureau about what they listened to and what they heard.''
He said he expected the jurors to work through the day Wednesday to draft that letter. Schrunk is also expected to request the court to release the transcripts of the grand jury hearing _ a request that Portland police commissioner Dan Saltzman pressed for in a letter to the district attorney last week..
Chief Deputy District Attorney Norm Frink said he will consult with the presiding judge on Wednesday to see when the request can be heard. If the court allows the release, the court reporter may not be able to have the grand jury transcripts ready for release until next week.
Portland Officer Ronald Frashour shot Campbell, 25, in the back with an AR-15 shortly after 6 p.m. Jan. 29 as Campbell was exiting the Sandy Terrace Apartments. Police were called to the complex on a report of a suicidal, armed man. Family said Campbell was distraught over the death of his younger brother, Timothy Douglass Jr., 23, that morning. Douglass had died of heart and kidney failure, his family said. But when Campbell exited the apartments and was shot, he did not have a gun on him.
The grand jury began hearing testimony in the officer-involved fatal shooting last Thursday, with two civilian witnesses, and continued Tuesday morning and into the evening. More than 20 witnesses were called, and the jurors ordered sandwiches for dinner to finish up their proceeding Tuesday night. By 9:15 p.m, Schrunk said the grand jury had returned a "no true bill,'' or no indictment.
Before the grand jury ruling late Tuesday night, the Albina Ministerial Alliance announced that its members planned to stand on the steps of the Justice Center Thursday morning and then picket outside the county courthouse to call for an indictment against the officer who shot Campbell. That picket may now turn into a protest. The alliance also will urge that a public inquest be held into the shooting.
Pastor LeRoy Haynes, vice president of the alliance of North and Northeast Portland ministers, argues that any civilian who shot an unarmed person in the back would be prosecuted for negligence, at the least. He says the officer in this case who shot an unarmed black man should face criminal charges.
"We'll be calling for an indictment and particular reforms within the police bureau,'' Haynes said Tuesday night, prior to the grand jury ruling.
Several witnesses to the shooting said they saw Campbell walking backwards out of his girlfriend's apartment unit, with his hands locked behind his head. Some said he was mouthing off, shouting at police to just kill him. But they said he was complying with orders.
Portland police said Officer Ryan Lewton fired six bean-bag shotgun rounds at Campbell about 6:08 p.m. when he didn't follow orders to put his hands in the air, had them behind his head and seemed to lower them as he rushed backwards towards police at a quick pace. About nine seconds later, Frashour fired one shot at Campbell with the AR-15 rifle because he said he saw Campbell reach both hands towards the back waistband of his pants as he appeared to run toward an alcove in the Sandy Terrace Apartments.
"Officer Frashour was concerned about the safety of residents inside the apartments where Campbell was running toward, the safety of his fellow officers who were behind the apartments and his own safety,'' the Police Bureau said in a written release last week.
At least two civilian witnesses said they saw Campbell reach with one hand toward his back, where he'd just been hit with a bean-bag round, and was stumbling away from officers because he was getting hit by multiple bean-bag shots.
Once Campbell was shot in the back with the AR-15 rifle, a police dog was unleashed on Campbell but his body was left in the parking lot for more than 30 minutes before a medic approached from the police tactical squad, or Special Emergency Reaction Team, and declared him dead at 6:51 p.m. An ambulance was on the scene at 6:13 p.m., but was told to wait a block or so away.
The Special Emergency Reaction Team wasn't activated until after the shooting, at 6:18 p.m., and the tactical squad arrived by 6:46 p.m. to make what police termed a "hasty rescue."
The Portland Police Bureau will now conduct an internal investigation to determine whether police involved in the incident followed bureau policies and training.