Man who shot, killed intruder has claimed self-defense

Published 5:00 am Friday, June 27, 2008

SUTHERLIN — A man who shot an intruder on a couch inside his Southern Oregon home told police and his wife he acted in self-defense, according to a court document.

Keith Cramer, 34, told police, “He beat me up, so I shot him. This is my house. He’s an intruder,” according to the affidavit officers submitted for a warrant to search the house.

Nobody has been arrested, and the case is expected to go to a grand jury.

According to police accounts, Cramer’s wife, Christy, summoned him from a bar shortly before the 3 a.m. shooting June 19 because she had found the man, Michael Smith, asleep on the couch, police said.

After the shooting, two Sutherlin police officers entered the home and found the 35-year-old Smith.

He was “lying on his side with his feet propped up on the couch, facing the center of the living room,” according to the search warrant affidavit filed in court Tuesday.

He appeared to have been shot in the upper chest, according to the affidavit. Police believe Cramer used a high-powered hunting rifle.

Police said Cramer and Smith both had been at the same bar that night, Vera’s Tavern, but initial reports indicated they did not know each other.

On Monday, Cramer’s attorney, Danny Lang, said Smith had made “sudden aggressive movements” toward his client before the shooting and that Cramer feared for his own safety and his family’s safety.

Relatives and friends of Smith say he was an Alaska resident in Sutherlin to care for his dying mother.

Smith, who was a cook in Alaska, is survived by two children and his wife, according to friends and family.