‘I’m coming for you guys’; Records show harrowing details in Deschutes County jail shooting, chase

Published 5:40 pm Wednesday, August 9, 2023

On the night of his father’s arrest, Nicholas Ryan Cooper sat in a parking lot outside the Deschutes County jail trying to figure out how he could free his father, prosecutors say. His Jeep Cherokee was loaded with guns.

“I’m coming for you guys,” he told a 911 dispatcher, court records say.

But his actions March 2, which included shooting at the jail’s front entrance and leading authorities on a high-speed chase on U.S. Highway 97, failed and led to a guilty plea Wednesday for the 25-year-old Sunriver man.

Cooper pleaded guilty in Deschutes County Circuit Court to three felony counts and three misdemeanors stemming from the incident.He pleaded guilty to fleeing law enforcement, attempting to commit a Class A felony, recklessly endangering people and the unlawful use of a weapon.

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He faces 70 months in state prison. Cooper’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21.

In a “full confession,” Cooper told detectives he wanted sheriff’s deputies to respond that night “so he could shoot and kill them,” according to court documents filed by Deschutes County Deputy District Attorney Brooks McClain.

But Katherine Griffith, Cooper’s defense attorney, disputed that there was evidence showing Cooper intended to kill law enforcement officials.

“We don’t agree that that was his intent,” Griffith, who works for the Bend-based public defense nonprofit Deschutes Defenders, said after the hearing Wednesday.

Two counts of attempted murder in Cooper’s case were dropped, according to court records.

In his plea, which followed a settlement conference Monday, Cooper agreed that he fired the shot, “but not at all with the intent to harm, kill, draw out law enforcement officers in any way,” Griffith said.

Cooper’s dad, John Cooper, 54, had been arrested earlier that day in March on suspicion of luring a 17-year-old girl for sexual favors. The elder Cooper pleaded guilty in April to luring a minor. He was sentenced in March to 36 months of probation and 30 days in jail, with credit for time served, and registered as a sex offender, according to court records.

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Cooper was “upset” by his father’s arrest, according to court records. In his “confession,” he disclosed “where he had been and his thought process during the course of the entire day,” court records show.

What follows is spelled out in the court records filed by McClain and law enforcement reports.

After making the 911 call, Cooper drove to Ashley’s furniture store, directly across from the sheriff’s office on the opposite side of U.S. Highway 20. He chose this spot “because it gave him a direct line of sight to the front of the jail,” court records say.

Cooper set up his rifle, waiting for officers to arrive from across a busy section of Highway 20, court records say. No one did.

Eventually, Cooper fired one shot into the front of the jail, court records show. The bullet didn’t hit anyone and lodged in a wall. The sheriff’s office and jail went into lockdown soon after.

Still, authorities didn’t respond, court records say. Cooper grew impatient and headed back to his Sunriver home, according to McClain.

Authorities responded, however, to the reported gunshot at around 9 p.m. and then drove to Cooper’s home. They found him just as he was leaving, court records say. Authorities said Cooper had three guns, a bulletproof vest without ballistics plates, and ammunition in his Jeep.

Cooper ignored an attempted traffic stop, heading north on the highway in the opposite lane, eluding law enforcement officers, court records say.

As he drove the wrong way up an off-ramp along the highway, he “intentionally” tried to drive his car “head on” toward Deschutes County sheriff’s Sgt. James McLaughlin, who was responding to the chase, court records say. McLaughlin swerved out of the way.

Cooper continued driving the wrong way on the highway, reaching speeds up to 80 mph and passing “at least five” cars that had to avoid crashing into him, court records say. A couple of them spun out on the side of the road.

He eventually made a U-turn and drove back toward the off-ramp on Cottonwood Road, where authorities placed spike strips that flattened his tires.

An officer then drove a car against Cooper’s, physically pushing him off the road, and then arrested him, court records say.