Editor’s note: This story was updated on July 16 to reflect new information from investigators who found the person who was killed was not responsible for wounding the sergeant.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An officer shot and killed a person on Friday afternoon in Welches, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies and officers from the Sandy Police Department responded at about 2:45 p.m. to a call from the relatives of a man who was having a mental health crisis at Mt. Hood Village RV Resort. Family members said the man was alone and firing a handgun, deputies said. A crisis negotiator tried to calm the man down at the scene but the situation escalated and officials were forced to fire bean bag rounds and a Taser, according to the sheriff’s office.
The less-lethal options didn’t work and the man pulled a handgun, at which point an officer opened fire.
It’s unclear how many shots were fired before the man was shot and killed. KOIN 6 News learned that a sergeant at the scene starting performing first aid on the suspect and didn’t realize he himself had been shot in the arm.
Authorities have not released the name of the man who was killed but they said he was 58 years old.
Sergeant Marcus Mendoza with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said deputies undergo extensive de-escalation training.
“We all want to help people and at it’s core that’s why we’re here and this person who’s in crisis and contemplating taking their own life,” said Mendoza. “So it’s a very serious situation and if they have a firearm we know that any of us or anyone here at the park could be seriously injured or killed.”
The sergeant who was shot was not the officer who opened fire on the suspect, Mendoza said. That officer will be put on routine administrative leave pending an investigation being carried out by multiple law enforcement agencies.