Grand jury: Cop justified in killing armed suspect

Published 12:00 am Sunday, March 25, 2018

A Keizer police officer won’t face criminal charges for fatally shooting a man authorities say was on the run after robbing a Pizza Hut at gunpoint on March 14.

A Marion County grand jury ruled Friday that Officer Tyler Wampler was legally justified in shooting 26-year-old Ryan Chapman in a cul-de-sac on Springtime Court. He had a .22-caliber silver pistol in his hand when he was shot, the county district attorney’s office said.

According to witnesses, Chapman drove away from the Pizza Hut along River Road North and was soon spotted and chased by Wampler, a 26-year-old veteran, and three other officers about 6 p.m. Chapman crashed into another car after a mileslong chase, ran from his car and was chased down by Wampler and Officer Carrie Anderson

Chapman kept running after Wampler told him to stop or he’d be shot, the district attorney’s office said.

At one point, Chapman was stopped between two cars in a driveway. He raised one hand when the two officers told him to and yelled that he had a gun, held in his other hand.

Wampler ordered Chapman to drop the handgun several times, but he didn’t, the district attorney’s office said. Wampler shot Chapman once in the head sometime after. The $540 taken from the Pizza Hut was found in Chapman’s backpack, the district attorney’s office said.

An autopsy determined Chapman had methamphetamine, opiates and THC in his system when he was killed. Police said he matched a physical description and was wearing similar clothes to a suspect believed to have committed several other armed robberies this year in the Salem and Keizer area.

Chapman is the fourth person killed by police in Oregon this year.

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