Potter fires cop, citing 10 mistakes

From The Oregonian

Mayor Tom Potter, a retired cop who knows what it's like to make split-second life-or-death decisions, fired a Portland Police lieutenant Thursday for a series of questionable choices that led to the Jan. 4, 2006, shooting of a suspicious driver --not necessarily for the shooting itself.

Potter demanded Lt. Jeffrey Kaer's badge despite the advice of Chief Rosie Sizer and the 17-year veteran's own emotional plea for his job during a July 30 meeting with the mayor.

At that sit-down, the officer known to colleagues as "Kaer Bear" reminded the mayor that he has spent his career winning commendations and doing exactly the kind of neighborhood-based police work Potter loves. A union lawyer also reminded the mayor that there's a good chance a state arbitrator will give Kaer his job back.

But in a sternly worded termination letter, Potter listed 10 separate points at which he believes Kaer either violated Police Bureau policy or policing common sense. They all came before Kaer fired his 9mm Glock pistol.

"Make no mistake, every police officer has the right and the duty to protect themselves and the community," Potter said. "But no officer should put themselves in that position by repeatedly ignoring bureau policy and exercising poor judgment."

Kaer, 45, joined the Portland Police Bureau in April 1990. In that private meeting with the mayor, he described how two incidents from his North Portland childhood inspired him to become a police officer.

When he was 6, a drunk pounded on his family's front door. His mother, a slight woman home alone with four kids, called police but was told there were no officers available to help. The man eventually wandered away.

Several years later, Kaer's younger brother was the victim of what he described only as "a heinous crime." Police officers arrested the man responsible and forced him out of their neighborhood.

"I knew what it was like not to have police come when you needed help. I knew what it was like when you needed help and they were there," he told Potter, according to a transcript of what's known as a "due process" meeting. "I made my decision then and there that I wanted to be a Portland police officer. I wanted to be there when somebody needed help."

Before the shooting, Kaer was a model officer, according to police records. He was promoted to sergeant in 1998, and to lieutenant in 2003. At various times, he worked in North, Central, Northeast, East and Southeast precincts.

He was the night shift commander in Southeast Precinct on Jan. 4, 2006, when he received a 2:15 a.m. call from his sister. Brenda Kotsovos had noticed a strange car parked at a 45-degree angle in front of her home on Northeast 64th Avenue, south of Alameda Street.

Two months earlier, her son was shot in the face during a road rage incident. The suspect had been identified but not arrested. As a result, she was on the lookout for anything odd in the neighborhood, and emergency dispatchers had flagged her address so that several cars would respond to any 9-1-1 call.

Kotsovos later told investigators that she didn't see any reason for several officers to investigate what might be nothing. So she called her brother rather than 9-1-1, and he opted to check the car out himself, despite the fact his sister lived in East Precinct.

That, Potter says, was Kaer's first mistake.

Called for backup

When Kaer arrived at the scene, he radioed in with his location and asked for backup. But he did not ask dispatchers to run the license number of the oddly parked 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass, nor did he offer any details about what he found at the scene. Those were mistakes two and three. Had he run the license plate number, he would have discovered that the Cutlass was stolen.

Kaer approached the car before the second officer arrived, taking no extra care even though the engine was running and both the reverse and brake lights were on: mistakes four and five.

He assumed he was dealing with a drunken driver who had passed out --mistake six --even after he looked inside the car and saw that the driver, 28-year-old meth addict and convicted car thief Dennis Lamar Young, held a tire iron across his lap and there were tools frequently used by burglars in the seat next to him.

Kaer roused Young, who was slumped over and unconscious, and ordered him to put the car in park. When he didn't, Kaer shoved Young toward the passenger seat. He reached all the way inside the Cutlass to shift it into park himself, despite the fact that his backup officer hadn't arrived yet. Those were mistakes seven and eight.

When the second officer arrived, Kaer did not tell him what was going on --mistake nine --even as his confrontation with Young escalated. He ordered Young to turn the car off. When Young explained that he did not have the key, Kaer asked him if the Cutlass was stolen.

That, Potter says, was mistake number 10.

Instead of answering, Young suddenly reached down and put the Cutlass back into gear. The moving car hit Kaer's arm, causing him to do a 90-degree spin. It ran into a dogwood, and then reversed toward Kaer. He later told investigators that he side-stepped out of the way and, in the chaos of the moment, didn't even realize he had drawn his weapon.

"My gun was just there all of a sudden," he told the mayor. "There was no place to go. I didn't see an avenue of escape. And so I fired the two rounds because I wanted to stop him."

It was the first time he'd ever fired his pistol on duty.

One bullet blew out the driver's window. Another pierced the driver's side door. Young died from a bullet wound to the upper torso.

No criminal charges

A Multnomah County grand jury declined to press criminal charges. The Police Bureau's Use of Force Review Board ruled that the shooting was justified but that Kaer had committed several violations of bureau policy. It recommended suspending him for four weeks without pay. Police Chief Sizer seconded that suggestion.

Instead, Potter fired Kaer, who could not be reached for comment.

The decision drew grumbling from officers across the city. Kaer's union, the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association, has pledged to file a grievance.

There's a decent chance it'll succeed. City officials could not recall a single case of an officer being fired in the past 20 years who was not reinstated later by a state arbitrator.

Former Mayor Vera Katz suspended the officer who shot Kendra James during a 2003 traffic stop for almost six months without pay. An arbitrator later overturned the discipline, ruling that the bureau failed to conduct a full internal affairs investigation into the shooting. The city was ordered to pay the officer back wages and expunge the suspension.

"We are deeply, deeply disappointed in the decision and in the process," said Commander Mike Reese, speaking for the Commanding Officers union. "The person who is ultimately responsible for this being a deadly encounter was the suspect. He made the decisions that led to the loss of life. This is a tragedy, but Jeff Kaer acted in good faith."

Good faith or not, Kaer will be off the city payroll at 8 a.m. today. After that, the lawyers get involved.

Duin ignorant about police

from The Oregonian

As a police officer in Portland, one of the most difficult experiences I regularly expose myself to is reading Steve Duin's columns. Virtually every sentence he writes concerning law enforcement shrieks with his uniquely buffoonish style of ignorance.

Seldom, however, does he expose his lack of understanding as eloquently as near the end of Tuesday's thinly veiled stab at police ("Staying cool when the heat is on"), when he contrasts his magnanimous approval of Rob Wullbrandt's decision to not return fire against his assailant with what other police officers may think.

It is profoundly difficult for me to imagine any police officer questioning that decision, and I certainly haven't heard any [second-guessing] within the bureau. Duin's implication that there are officers in the bureau who think that Wullbrandt should have fired appears based on nothing more than his prejudice.

Every cop realizes that some day, he or she will be faced with a life-or-death decision based on little information and affected by physical, emotional and mental stresses. Their performance in that crucible may end up defining (or even ending) the lives of many, including themselves.

Duin's vantage point on the split second in which Wullbrandt decided not to fire back encompasses the greater context of Portland police, violence and Kendra James. The police officer's view of the same situation is both much narrower in scope and infinitely deeper in complexity.

JOSEPH SHARPE
Officer, Portland Police Bureau
North Precinct
North Portland

Staying cool when the heat is on

from The Oregonian

Both the Portland police and I have a track record. Far too often --Kendra James, James Jahar Perez and Jose Santos Victor Mejia Poot top the list --officers draw their weapons and shoot people. Far too caustically, from behind the protective shield of my computer, I criticize them for it.

That brings us to Officer Robert Wullbrandt. One break from tradition deserves another.

Eight days ago, Wullbrandt --a four-year veteran on patrol in Southeast Portland --watched a black Buick Regal make an unsafe pass in rush-hour traffic. He pulled the Buick over in the Trader Joe's parking lot at 39th Avenue and Schiller Street.

At 5:20 p.m., the grocery store parking lot was jammed with the usual array of kids, balloons, gnocchi fanatics and organic mangos. Wullbrandt, who didn't have the luxury of backup, approached the Buick, which contained three people ... one of whom, Nicholas Onuskanich, 24, lunged from the back seat and bolted toward 39th.

Onuskanich is hardly a beacon of junior achievement. He had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court to face charges of possessing and peddling meth and cocaine. "One of the things that's ironic," said Robert King, "is the guy didn't want to go to jail. This is Multnomah County. He wouldn't have spent more than an hour in jail."

King is the head of the Portland police union. He and Wullbrandt decided, based on the aforementioned laps around the track, that Wullbrandt would not be made available to describe what happened next.

Wullbrandt set off after Onuskanich. He had almost run him down, police say, when Onuskanich pulled out a gun, whirled and fired several shots at the officer.

"I'm not sure anyone fully appreciates or understands the impact of having someone try to murder you," King said. "If someone's shooting at me, I'm inclined to shoot back. A lot."

That's the prescription of the cops' defensive training: Eliminate the lethal threat. Don't debate; react.

But Wullbrandt didn't return fire. "Due to the amount of people in the area," the police press release said. With bullets flying past his ear, Wullbrandt calmly reasoned that commuters, shoppers and joggers in the area would be better off if he didn't empty his magazine.

I don't know if that decision saved anyone's life, save, of course, for that of Mr. Onuskanich. I do know a passing motorcyclist, Greg Geist, was awarded the police bureau's Civilian Heroism Medal after he spotted Onuskanich entering an apartment in the 4000 block of Southeast Holgate and directed police to the fugitive's hiding place.

Onuskanich surrendered several hours later. He has been charged with attempted aggravated murder. And there's reason to believe he will spend more than one hour in jail.

Wullbrandt? I assume he's back on patrol. And I understand why he's not inclined to discuss what happened when a routine traffic stop turned potentially deadly. When that happens, King argued after Officer Jason Sery shot and killed James Jahar Perez, "when we have to make that ultimate split-second decision, we don't just ask for your understanding, we ask for your support."

Those are the rules. That is the code. And that's why I salute Wullbrandt, for understanding he was in a neighborhood, not on a battlefield. He just convinced me some cops understand the citizens of Oregon want the police who confront the Kendra Jameses and Lukus Glenns to accept a little more risk if that's what it takes to save a few lives.

His coolness under fire may leave other officers annoyed, waiting for the day when similar caution gets a cop killed, but it has this columnist applauding.

By Steve Duin: 503-221-8597