Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosBend Police Capt. Jim Porter works the scene of a shooting involving an officer in northeast Bend on Friday that left one man dead. The shooting happened as drug detectives were investigating a suspected methamphetamine dealer.
Anthony Dimaano / The Bulletin
Suspected meth deal turns deadly when Bend officer fires
Officer put on leave as authorities investigate
By Cindy Powers / The Bulletin
Published: May 03. 2008 4:00AM PSTOfficials will release today the name of a Bend Police officer who shot and killed a man in front of a northeast Bend home during a suspected drug deal early Friday morning.
Investigators believe that, at the time he was shot, the man was involved in delivering methamphetamine to the home. Officers reported finding a “large quantity of methamphetamine” in the man’s possession after he was killed.
The man had not been identified as of late Friday, and authorities declined to disclose the name of the Bend Police officer involved in the incident until today, saying they are investigating the use of deadly force.
Interim Bend Police Chief Sandi Baxter did say it appeared that a single officer shot the man.
Deschutes County 911 records show that authorities served two search warrants Thursday night at a home at 1811 N.E. Wichita Way — one just before 8 p.m. and another at 10:37 p.m.
Investigators from the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement team found a large amount of cash, two weapons and methamphetamine inside the home, according to a news release from the Bend Police Department.
Sometime after midnight, with police still on scene, three people drove up to the house. The driver was arrested as he went up to the house, the release said. As investigators tried to make contact with the two passengers in the car, at least one officer fired and one of the passengers was killed.
Neighbors interviewed Friday reported hearing between three and six rounds fired.
A call reporting multiple gunshot wounds came in at 12:17 a.m., according to 911 records.
The drug enforcement team, made up of officers from all Central Oregon law enforcement agencies, later searched the home of the driver and found cash, methamphetamine and a handgun, the release said.
Neighbor Sue Curry said she has lived on Wichita Way since October and was unaware of any problems at the house.
Curry, 43, lives in an apartment building — one of several that dot the neighborhood dominated by single-story ranch homes — three doors down from the house where the shooting happened.
“Other houses had a lot of traffic in and out,” Curry said. “I knew what was going on down there, but I am surprised it was that house.”
Bradley Warkentin owns the house where the shooting happened and said the tenant, who was not home at the time of the shooting, has been there for about six months.
Warkentin described the man as a good tenant. Warkentin added that he has not had any problems at the home since the tenant has been living there.
Bruce Wannemaker has lived a few doors down from the home for a year and said car traffic at the house had picked up recently.
Wannemaker, 57, was among several neighbors who heard the shots just after midnight.
“By about 12:30, it was like Christmas, New Year’s and the Fourth of July with all the cops here,” he said.
Under Deschutes County’s deadly physical force plan, the officer involved has been put on a 72-hour paid “pause,” Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan said, and will not be allowed to return to work during that time.
Dugan said other officers who were at the scene when the shooting happened also have been put on leave, but could not say how many.
Authorities will now investigate the shooting following the deadly force plan approved by the Oregon attorney general last month, Dugan said.
“We aren’t going to be able to obtain any statements from (the officers) until after they’ve rested and gotten over the shock,” Dugan said. “We’re not going to have a conclusion to the investigation for at least 72 hours, and my guess is we won’t have it wrapped up for four or five days.”
That investigation, supervised by an Oregon State Police investigator, will look into whether deadly force was used appropriately in the shooting.
Once that is complete, Baxter said Bend police will conduct a separate internal investigation into the incident.
The internal investigation will determine whether the officer followed Bend Police Department policies in using deadly force.
Officer-involved deadly force incidents are unusual in Central Oregon, but Friday’s deadly shooting is at least the third such incident in the past five years.
In September 2006, two Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies and an Oregon State trooper shot a mentally ill man inside his La Pine home after he threatened to hurt his mother and to kill a neighbor.
All of the officers were later cleared of wrongdoing in the death of 35-year-old Devon Shane Linville.
Three years earlier, a Deschutes County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Stephen Douglas Brumbach, a La Pine resident. Brumbach, 57, was killed after he swung a handgun toward two deputies responding to the report of a suicidal person.
Cindy Powers can be reached at 617-7812 or cpowers@bendbulletin.com.
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