Bend Police chief reflects on Safeway shooting one year later

Published 5:15 am Sunday, August 27, 2023

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz was making Sunday dinner at his home when he learned about the chaos at the east-side Safeway.

He raced to the grocery store around 7 p.m. Reports flooded in by phone and radio: shots fired, victims, police running into the grocery store.

“Whatever it was — we didn’t have the details yet — it didn’t sound like a low-level event,” recalled Krantz, a few days before the first anniversary of the Aug. 28, 2022 shooting. “It sounded pretty traumatic, like it was growing pretty quickly.”

Krantz arrived to a parking lot full of police, traumatized witnesses and daunting questions that needed answers. In nearly three decades as a police officer, he had responded to active shooters before: Clackamas Town Center, where two people were killed in 2012, and Reynolds High School in Troutdale, where a 14-year-old student was killed in 2014.

But it was the first time an event of such magnitude had shaken the small city of Bend, and the first time many of the city’s police officers had seen anything like it.

In a nearly hour-long interview with The Bulletin, Krantz spoke at-length about the shooting for the first time with media. He spoke about his department’s response, the impact the shooting has had on the city and what residents should remember moving forward.

The shooting was “pretty traumatic, even if you weren’t there and you weren’t involved,” said Krantz, who became chief about two years before the shooting, in August 2020. “Because it kind of shocks you. It breaks the glass of: ‘Wait a minute, we’re Bend. This doesn’t happen here.’”

Bend joined the ranks of cities across the nation plagued by gun violence after a shooter opened fire.

Bend reels from gun violence

The outcome is well-known. Two people — a Safeway employee and an elderly man — were shot and killed. The gunman, who fired an AR-15-style rifle on innocent people throughout The Forum Shopping Center, turned the gun on himself as police ran inside. The tragedy was over roughly four minutes after it was first reported to 911.

Krantz described the response by his officers as “exceptional,” noting that they ran inside and “without hesitation did what they needed to do.” The following investigation was “in-depth” and “thorough,” he said. Bend police were prepared, trained, equipped, he said.

He still saw room for improvement, though.

The shooting, almost certainly, drew more first responders than any other incident in Central Oregon’s history. At one point, 86 vehicles were there, and it was difficult to monitor who was doing what.

At first, Bend Police operated an “overwhelmed” command post out of the back of a lieutenant’s SUV. Krantz called it “organized chaos.”

Meanwhile, unfounded reports came in about a second shooting. Police traveled across town to make sure there wasn’t another threat, pulling them away from their duties at Safeway. Conspiracy theories and misinformation spread rapidly online. That night, community members demanded answers police couldn’t yet provide, either because they hadn’t vetted something or because they were concerned about placing an ongoing investigation at risk.

To combat future issues like this, Krantz said the department budgeted for a command post and hopes to complete the purchase in the coming years. He said police have talked about how to improve communication during similar events. He said the city council approved the purchase of a virtual reality system that police can use to train for active shooter scenarios.

Speaking with patrol officers, it’s clear that the Safeway shooting has had lasting impact on Bend, where many residents once believed mass shootings only happen in big cities.

“When you look around the country, it happens everywhere,” said Krantz. “There was no reason to think that it’s never going to happen here.”

If Bend residents take away anything from such a tragedy, Krantz said he wants them to remember three things.

That Bend Police intend to respond without hesitation to armed threats.

That social media is ripe with harmful misinformation in the wake of tragedies like this.

And that the people of Bend know how to respond.

“As a community, a lot of people came together. And that’s an important thing. There was a lot of people offering help.”

The Bend community was devastated on Aug. 28, 2022 when a gunman killed two people at the eastside Safeway store before turning a gun on himself. In the year since, residents have healed, taken stock and reflected. 

A year of mourning and loss ends in reflection: A year later, Bend still mourns the loss from Safeway shooting

Two men create bond, friendship after their chance meeting during the shooting: They saved each other in the Bend Safeway shooting. They’ve been friends ever since.

Community members talk about how Bend has changed: In a Bend changed by violence, community urges love

For the first time, Police Chief Mike Krantz speaks out: Bend Police chief reflects on Safeway shooting one year later