On January 29, 2010 a suicidal Aaron Campbell morning his brother’s death:
emerged from a Northeast Portland apartment with his back toward officers and his hands behind his head. Officer Ryan Lewton, trying to get Campbell to put his hands in the air, fired six beanbag rounds at him.
You see, Campbell had been exchanging
text messages with another officer, James Quackenbush immediately prior to his emerging from the apartment in what would appear, to any rational being, to be a very compliant manner:
Aaron, we need to know if you intend on hurting yourself,
And Campbell was clearly not suicidal at this point responding with humor:
Never. Wow you guys text too. You get kudos.
Quackenbush goes on to call Campbell asking him to come outside.
Of course none of this information was relayed to the officers with AR15s drawn, police dog at the ready. What unfolded next will seem very familiar to anyone following current events. A series of instructions are shouted at Campbell, instructions apparently not loud or clear enough for even officer Ron Frashour, the officer who moments later would shoot Campbell dead from behind, to have understood.
Having not complied with the officers (apparently unintelligible) instructions to raise his hands straight up into the air they shoot him once with the bean bag gun in the buttocks then five more times in the lower back. In describing why he shot an unarmed surrendering Campbell in the back with his AR15 Frashour says:
I mean he just dove his hand straight down the middle of his back, and instantly thought, 'He is pulling a gun out,
He dove his hand straight down the middle of his back, why else might he have done that? Possibly because in attempting to surrender he’s shot five times in the lower back with a bean bag gun. Can you imagine the self restraint it would take to NOT reflexively shoot your hand to the place you had just been pummeled by five high velocity bean bags? The police then go on to sic their police dog on the now fatally wounded Cambell. Lots of other familiar “cover your ass” statements are trotted out by those involved to justify their unjustifiable actions.
Describing Campbell’s surrendering, backward walking approach Frashour says he remembers the:
determination of his walk,
And Frashour also remembers Campbell said something, not sure what, but that "tone" was so:
aggressive and hostile and defiant and loud
I should also mention Frashour had a somewhat checkered history having had a previous
incident in August 2008:
in which Frashour rammed into the wrong car as police were trying to stop a reckless driver
and:
his 2006 firing of a Taser at Frank Waterhouse, who was videotaping officers chasing a suspect.
The City eventually does try to do the right thing by firing Frashour but guess what, he gets reinstated with
at least $188,000 in back pay after an arbitrator rules Frashour had followed police procedure. I’m not sure if he is still on paid administrative leave or not but this sad series of events seems all too familiar with many of the same elements we’ve come to expect.
1. Unarmed, non threatening black male shot dead by police (in the back no less);
2. Police officer with a checkered past;
3. Narrative of fear and imminent danger told by the police;
4. A “no true bill” Grand Jury decision;
5. Obsessively loyal police union and;
6. A police officer getting off scot-free because current police procedures say this type of behavior is justified
There is much more information in the linked articles and as always, there are many sides to each story but the similarities are sickening.
Update: From one of the Oregonian articles;
Their training drills into officers the action-reaction principle that a suspect can pull a gun and shoot faster than an officer reacts.
This is the
"Action Reaction Principle". If this is the standard by which all police operate then its hard to see how a police officer could EVER be charged with murder, as long as they are willing to lie about thinking the person they shot was going for a gun. Its a license to kill anyone, anytime.