SEASIDE, Ore. (KOIN) — A man, armed with two black-powder pistols, was shot and killed by two Seaside Police officers on Tuesday after the Clatsop County DA’s Office said he refused to disarm.
On Wednesday, the Clatsop County DA’s Office identified the man shot by police as 44-year-old Cashus Dean Case.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
The Clatsop County DA’s Office said Seaside Police officers were called to Roosevelt Drive and Avenue P around noon on Tuesday because Case, reportedly angry about a dog attack in the RV park, was “waving around two pistols.” Case has prior felony convictions out of Idaho and is barred from owning a firearm, the DA’s Office said.
Body camera footage shows that when officers arrived, Case confronted them, according to the DA’s Office. Ultimately, after neighbors heard yelling, the two officers shot and killed Case.
Those two Seaside officers have been put paid leave pending the investigation.
Michaela Wilson said she was friends with Case. She said everything started when three dogs, belonging to another resident, attacked a different resident. Wilson said she had to take the person bit by the dogs to the hospital. That man reportedly suffered injuries to his nose, mouth, groin and legs.
Case then went to defend the man who was bit by the dogs, Wilson said.
“(Case) said if (the dog-owner) didn’t get rid of the dogs by tonight, he was going to shoot him,” Wilson told KOIN 6 News. “They needed to be put down.”
Wilson said police were called. Then, two minutes after she last talked to Case, she heard yelling.
“(And then) five rapid shots,” Wilson said. “I went running outside and the officers were standing with their guns drawn with him laying on the ground dead.”
Though he was armed, Wilson said Case wasn’t a threat. She said all he was trying to do was defend the resident bit by a dog.
“His whole thing was to save lives yesterday,” Wilson said. “Not to hurt anybody. And those cops gunned him down in cold blood.
“It’s a horrible situation for everyone involved.”
KOIN 6 News will update this story as more information becomes available.