PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Monday, September 30, marked the 1-year anniversary of the death of Patrick Kimmons. Portland Police shot and killed him at the corner of SW 4th Avenue and Harvey Milk Street in 2018.
His family held a rally Monday evening in his honor at the same intersection where he died. His mother is still fighting for officers to change their use-of-force protocol.
“Today we are here for his one year anniversary,” said Letha Winston, Kimmons’ mother. “I’m not going to ever be able to sleep. It’s a year and I still got anxiety.”
Kimmons was 27 years old when he was shot and killed by Portland Police officers. The investigation into his death revealed that moments before officers fired at him, Kimmons shot 2 people during a fight. According to police, Sgt. Garry Britt and Officer Jeffery Livingston both shot Kimmons. They said he was armed and refused to listen to commands.
“There are different ways to stop a person from running,” said Winston. “Not shooting a person 9 times, that’s excessive force. Today is just like it happened all over again.”
A grand jury ruled that the officers were justified in their actions. Winston called on Mayor Ted Wheeler and the Portland Police Bureau to make changes.
“They need to come together and retrain their officers about using excessive force,” she said. “The justice that I want is for that police officer to not work on the force again because he used excessive force on my son.”
Since her son’s death, Winston was at one point holding weekly rallies in front of City Hall, demanding change. She is still pursuing legal action against the two officers involved in the shooting. Winston wants both of them to be fired for excessive force.