Did Portland’s chief of police lie to law enforcement about shooting his friend in a hunting accident? Over the weekend, the Portland Police Bureau offered very few details except to acknowledge Chief Larry O’Dea shot an as-of-yet unnamed 54-year-old man on a hunting trip in Harney County on April 21, 2016. Chief O’Dea described the shooting as a "negligent discharge.”
The shooting is being investigated by the Oregon Department of Justice and Oregon State Police and it may quickly be taking a criminal turn. Based on the public statement (below), Sheriff Dave Ward of Harney County (yes, same county Ammon Bundy and Y’all Qaeda held hostage this year), Harney County deputies heard an altogether different version when the shooting was first reported:
NEWS RELEASE FROM HARNEY COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE:
The #HarneyCounty Sheriff's Office began an investigation of an accidental shooting on April 21, 2016 after receiving a 911 call that a 54 year old male was shot.
Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward was initially briefed on April 22, 2016 of the shooting incident and was told that it was a self-inflicted accidental shooting. Further information was gathered which contradicted this and Sheriff Ward was notified on May 16, 2016 that Portland Police Bureau Chief Larry O'Dea was involved in the incident. Harney County Sheriff Ward requested assistance from the Oregon State Police on the same date he was notified of Chief O'Dea's involvement.
As the case remains under investigation by the Oregon State Police and Oregon Department of Justice, no further information can be provided at this time. All questions are being referred to Department of Justice.
Wow! Harney County deputies were initially told the unnamed victim managed to somehow shoot himself in the back! And Sheriff Ward didn’t know Chief O’Dea was involved until nearly a month after the shooting. Sheriff Ward was ticked off to read about O'Dea's involvement in the news:
The sheriff said he learned only through recent news reports that O'Dea told his boss, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, four days after the shooting that he was responsible for wounding his friend.
"If he called the mayor and said he had shot his friend, he should have called me as well. I was irritated about that,'' Ward said. "He should have picked up the phone and called our office and said this is what happened.''
"If an accident happens, you raise your hand and say here's what happened,'' he said.
Sheriff Ward went on to tell The Oregonian that he still hadn’t interviewed Chief O’Dea, but body cameras seem to confirm Chief O'Dea lied to the responding deputy:
The deputy talked to those who were at the scene, capturing the interviews on his body camera. Those videos have been turned over to state police. Some members of the group told the deputy they didn't see what happened, but O'Dea and others gave the misleading "self-inflicted" account, Ward said.
The Willamette Weekly notes the Portland police have a strict truthiness directive:
"The integrity of police service is based on honesty and truthfulness," the directive reads. "Members will not make any false statements to justify a criminal or traffic charge, or seek to unlawfully influence the outcome of any investigation."
It is difficult to see how Chief O’Dea keeps his job in this scenario. And if he did lie to investigators, it’s hard to believe he won’t be facing criminal charges to boot. All of this may have been avoided if the chief had followed his own department’s guidelines and been forthright with the details from the get-go. Like many scandals, the cover-up is often worse than the crime.