POLICE SHOOTING
<<A Boardman Police officer shot at a suspect Wednesday before taking him into custody in Morrow County. The suspect and the officers were not injured.
The officers tried to contact 39-year-old Matthew Lous Spargo during a traffic stop about a violation to a restraining order when the shooting happened. Spargo was taken into custody.
The investigation into the incident is being led by Oregon State Police, with the help of the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office, Pendleton Police Department and the Morrow County District Attorney’s Office.>>
https://www.kptv.com/2023/01/04/police-officer-shoots-arrests-suspect-during-traffic-stop/
COP SHOOT COP
<<A group of outside attorneys failed to reach a consensus on whether Clark County Deputy John Feller should be charged for shooting and killing off-duty Vancouver Police Officer Donald Sahota.
Following Sahota’s death in early 2022, the Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team was tasked with investigating Feller’s use of deadly force. Once the LCMCT’s investigation ended, it was forwarded to Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik — who then requested the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys review it.
In an 11-page opinion issued by the Lewis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Wednesday, it was confirmed the WAPA panel ended with a split decision.
“The WAPA panel that reviewed the case was unable to reach consensus as to the reasonableness of Deputy Feller’s actions under the circumstances. Some believed that, considering the totality of the circumstances known to him, Feller should have taken the time to verify the identity of his target,” the letter stated. “Furthermore, had he done so, he would have readily discovered Officer Sahota was at the front door. Others concluded that the totality of the facts known to Feller were such that, at the time he shot, it was not unreasonable for him to believe lethal force was immediately necessary and the man at the front door was the robber.”
Golik’s office must now decide if there will be charges.
Sahota, a 52-year-old husband and father, was killed at his house on January 29, 2022, after an armed robbery suspect randomly showed up at his house. Sahota was stabbed by the suspect and then shot to death by Deputy Feller, who claims he mistook Sahota for the suspect.
The robbery suspect — Julio Cesar Segura — surrendered at the scene. He faces several charges, including first-degree murder.
The court document listing the charges states that the first first-degree murder charge is a result of Segura committing or attempting to commit burglary in the first degree and in the course of the crime, he caused Sahota’s death.>>
HATE CRIME
<<A man was arrested Tuesday in Salem for a bias crime and assault after he allegedly shot at a moving car and then used a racial slur and punched the driver of the car when both men had pulled over to the side of the road.
At about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a reported crash in the intersection of Lancaster Drive Northeast and Market Street Northeast.
According to Salem police, officers learned that Samuel Bailey Caster-Winegeart, 25, shot a gun at a moving SUV because he thought the SUV had hit his car.
After the driver of the SUV, who is Black, pulled over to the side of the road, Caster-Winegeart, who is white, pulled off the road, got out of his car, yelled a racial slur at the driver of the SUV and then punched him through a window that was partially rolled down, police said.
The driver of the SUV, 55, was taken to the hospital. Police said he had not been shot but was injured in the assault.
Caster-Winegeart was taken to the Marion County Jail. He faces charges of first-degree bias crime, fourth-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon or firearm, menacing, reckless endangering and second-degree criminal mischief.>>
FIGHT THE POWER
<<Federal law enforcement authorities have revealed the alleged motives behind attacks on four power substations in Washington state on Christmas Day that left thousands of people without electricity.
The four substations that were targeted were the Graham and Elk Plain substations operated by Tacoma Power and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations operated by Puget Sound Energy. The damage to just the Tacoma Power substations was estimated to be at least $3 million.
On Tuesday, the FBI identified 32-year-old Matthew Greenwood and 40-year-old Jeremy Crahan as the perpetrators of the attacks after analyzing their phone records.
One of the Tacoma Power substations caught images of one of the suspects and a pickup truck that was tied to the two men. When law enforcement arrested Greenwood and Crahan, they found the same clothing caught on camera and seized two unregistered guns, one with a makeshift silencer.
The two men were charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and possession of an unregistered firearm. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, conspiracy to attack energy facilities is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and possession of an unregistered firearm is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
Prosecutors will ask that both men remain detained at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac.
According to the criminal complaint, the reason for the attacks on December 25, which occurred over a 12-hour period and hundreds of miles apart, was to burglarize a nearby business while the power was out for nearly 15,000 customers in the area.
The outer chain-link fence around the Hemlock substation, which is run by Puget Sound Energy, was cut early on Christmas Day. A “bank high side switch” was tampered with, leading to an outage that affected about 8,000 users.
The next target was the substation in Elk Plain. In order to enter the substation, padlocks on the pedestrian gates had to be removed. Once inside, high side breakers were altered, which resulted in an outage.
The Graham substation was the scene of the third attack, which involved the manipulation of high side breakers and the cutting of a chain-link fence.
7,500 consumers experienced power interruptions as a result of the $3 million in damage to those two Tacoma Power substations. According to the lawsuit, replacing both “de-energizer taps” for each affected transformer that have been damaged will take up to 36 months.
The fourth attack took place at the Puget Sound Energy-run Kapowsin substation later that evening, on December 25. To obtain access, a chain-link fence was cut. The substation began to arc and spark after the suspects allegedly interfered with the bank high side switch and attempted to pry the linkage open.
Greenwood admitted, after being informed of his Miranda rights, that he and Crahan “have been preparing to disrupt power to commit a burglary,” according to a probable cause summary by FBI Special Agent Mark Tucher.
Crahan is accused of going inside the fourth substation. After the Graham and South Hill attacks, the two went to a nearby company where Crahan drilled out a lock and Greenwood entered to steal from the cash register, according to Tucher. This was done while the electricity was off. That company is not mentioned in the complaint.
According to the FBI, the suspects’ arrests were made possible by cellphone data identifying them at each of the four substations and security video showing one of the suspects and the getaway vehicle.
According to the complaint, a short-barreled weapon with an illegal handmade silencer was discovered during a search warrant of the trailer where both men resided.>>
NEW SHERIFF
<< Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell was sworn in as the 41st sheriff of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday morning. In the agency’s nearly 170-year history, she is the first woman to serve in the role.
Morrissey O’Donnell described herself as a bridge builder and vowed to build community trust.
“Community engagement has been and will continue to be the cornerstone of my approach to public safety,” Morrissey O’Donnell said. “I am dedicated to building trust by breaking down barriers through open and honest communication, transparency and accountability.”
Morrisey O’Donnell has served for the sheriff’s office for the past 26 years. She started as a corrections deputy in 1996 and rose through the ranks. She advanced from deputy to lieutenant to captain to chief deputy and then to undersheriff.
She is also one of only two Multnomah County sheriffs to hold dual certification in both corrections and police certifications.
Morrisey O’Donnell addressed a major issue facing Multnomah County: gun violence. She asserted that she is committed to community safety and reducing gun violence, while explaining that she and her family have experienced the impacts of gun violence first hand.
“This stems from an early childhood incident when my father survived a shooting during an armed robbery at his business in our small town,” she said.
Morrisey O’Donnell also said she will work with county health partners on an integrative public safety approach to help people in the community experiencing mental health and behavioral challenges.>>
<<In her address to the community, Sheriff Morrisey O’Donnell said, “I will lead and serve our community with compassion, pride, and unwavering resolve to build stronger communities. Because stronger communities make everyone safer.”
Voters elected Sheriff Morrisey O’Donnell in May 2022, with nearly 62-percent of the vote.
Sheriff Morrisey O’Donnell is a life-long Oregonian and University of Portland Criminal Justice graduate. Her post-graduate training includes the Oregon Executive Development Institute and Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association Command College. She holds executive level certification from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.>>
https://www.kptv.com/2023/01/04/multnomah-county-swears-first-woman-sheriff/
TRAFFIC CONTROL AS DETERRENCE
<<The Portland Bureau of Transportation said Portland Public Schools reached out to them for help, so PBOT added traffic calming devices along North Commercial Avenue before kids returned to school. These traffic calming devices are small speed bumps in the shape of a rectangle that narrow the road down to one lane, forcing drivers to slow down if a car is coming in the opposite direction.>>
<<This isn’t the first time traffic deterrents have been used to reduce gun violence. The Mount Scott-Arleta neighborhood was one of the first to get similar devices. Former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s office reported shootings there decreased while numbers stayed the same in other areas.>>