PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – More than 1,000 pages of grand jury transcripts and police reports were released almost simultaneously Monday, detailing the shooting death of 17-year-old Quanice Hayes.
Portland Police Officer Andrew Hearst shot Hayes 3 times, twice in the torso and once in the head, according to the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office.
Hayes was armed with a replica handgun at the time. An examination of the replica firearm by the Oregon State Police Crime Lab showed Hayes’ DNA was on it.
On March 21, 2017, a Multnomah County Grand Jury determined Hearst was justified in his use of deadly force in Hayes’ shooting death.
The shooting happened on February 9, 2017.
Portland Police were investigating an armed robbery at the Portland Value Inn hotel. The call for help came in at 7:24 a.m. on the 1700 block of NE 82nd Avenue.
At 7:26 a.m., officers responded to a 911 call of a car prowler at Banfield Pet Hospital, located at 1816 NE 82nd Avenue. The victim gave police a description of the suspect that was consistent with the suspect description in the first reported robbery.
At 7:36 a.m., officers responded to a 911 call of an unwanted person in the yard of a home on the 8300 block of NE Tillamook Street. That victim also reported a similar description as the first two 911 callers.
At 7:48 a.m, officers contacted Hayes but he fled. A neighborhood perimeter was set up and police started searching for him.
At 9:21 a.m, officers encountered Hayes crouching deep in an alcove. Officers believed he was armed with a handgun, as reported by the robbery victim, and was involved in the car prowl and burglary.
In between 7:48 a.m. and 9:21 a.m., officers were contemplating activating the bureau’s Special Emergency Response Team (SERT).
Officers ordered Hayes to crawl out of the alcove, which he started to do, but then stopped and got upright on his knees. Hayes was ordered multiple times by officers to keep his hands up, but made repeated and deliberate motions with his hands to the area of his waistband and pockets.What the robbery victim said
Armando Suarez, the victim of the armed robbery at the Portland Value Inn hotel, told the grand jury “I wasn’t only robbed at gunpoint, I was held hostage for an extended period of time.” The second he lowered his window is when he realized that the person confronting him was armed with a gun.
Suarez describes seeing the .45 caliber gun coming at him. “I just saw the barrel and everything.”
According to Suarez’s testimony, the person who confronted him said “you’re lucky you’re not dead right now.”
Suarez describes how Hayes went on to say “because in Chicago, we shoot you first, and then we rob you.”
Hayes, according to Suarez, then opened the car door and got inside. Hayes started searching the car.
“The whole time, he’s holding a gun in my face,” Suarez told the grand jury.
Suarez described Hayes as a “madman.” He went on to tell the grand jury he didn’t know what was going to happen.
“I just stood still, tried to stay calm as much as I could. What can I do?”
Suarez said he believes he was targeted based on his car. What Hayes didn’t know was that Suarez was homeless. He was living out of his car.
“This guy assumed that I had money because of my car,” he told the grand jury.
Suarez tried to reason with Hayes telling him that he was robbing the wrong guy.
Hayes, though, was sliding back the action on the gun, making it seem as if he was preparing to shoot.
Suarez told the grand jury that each time that happened it served as a reminder “that he’s in control right now.”
Hayes reportedly wanted Suarez to drive him around so Hayes could continue to rob people, looking for money.
The car Suarez was living out of was out of gas. Hayes kept ordering him to start the car and leave but each time Suarez went to start the car it never turned on.
Suarez described Hayes as a “professional…calm, cool, collected and very direct.” He said, “there was no way of doubting or disbelieving that this guy was not a pro. He had done this multiple times. Without a doubt.”
He described what Hayes was doing as a “deliberate act.”
When the ordeal with Suarez started to end, Hayes reportedly told him not to call 911.
“He just looked at me and said, ‘Don’t do it. I’m going to come back and put 2 in you.’”
Hayes put the gun around his waistline and just calmed walked away.‘…to defend myself and my coworkers, I knew I needed to fire my weapon’: Officer Andrew Hearst
During his testimony before the grand jury, Hearst said he and his partner were on an unrelated call for service in the area of 75th and Center and were listening to the call involving Hayes over police radios.
He described hearing the foot chase involving Hayes and said he remembered pursing officers relaying facts like Hayes was holding his waistband.
Hearst and his partner responded at the request of an on-scene supervisor who was asking for an officer with AR-15 rifle training.
As Hearst and his partner headed to the scene, Hurst described reading through the call on his computer scene to make sure he knew every updated piece of information that was being relayed by on scene officers and police dispatchers. He also described going through a mental checklist of his training once he got on scene.
Hearst described the officers, including a K-9 unit, searching the area after Hayes fled. The search started to wind down because there was no evidence he was still in the area. The K-9 track was starting to go cold.
The officers decided to check one last yard – one that they had skipped initially because they wanted to focus on a house with a broken window.
“He’s right here,” Hearst recalled hearing one of the officers yell. “Show me your hands.”
Hearst told the grand jury Hayes fled once again, but this time the distance was rather short and officers were able to maintain sight on him.
He said after seeing Hayes, and his description, he knew that Hayes was the suspect they were looking for.
Eventually, officers started to formulate a plan to take Hayes into custody.
Hearst recalled hearing the K-9 officer giving commands to Hayes.
“Keep your hands up.”
Hearst described being worried about Hayes’ behavior. Hayes’ hands weren’t fully up into the air as officers wanted.
Hearst looked at Hayes “eye-to-eye” and told him “if you reach for your waistband, I will shoot you.”
As that order was given, Hayes was standing up. Eventually, he dropped down to his knees. The officers wanted him to crawl out to him.
“If you reach for your waistband, I will shoot,” Hearst said again.
It was part of his training, he told the grand jury.
Instead of crawling towards the officers, as he was told, Hayes reportedly “jumps up very quickly.”
The move, which brought Hayes up onto his feet, caught all of the officers off guard.
Hayes was ordered back onto his knees.
Down he went.
The officers continued to give Hayes instructions to crawl out towards them.
“Hands out in front of you. Don’t reach for your waistband. Now begin to crawl,” is what Hearst recalls.
As Hayes started to crawl, he wasn’t keeping his hands in front of him, according to Hearst.
“He’s drawing [his hand] back towards his waistband,” he said. “And to me, I perceived it as possibly this guy is getting ready to pull the gun.”
Eventually, the officers were able to get Hayes out – by crawling – into a more open area.
Hearst told the grand jury that Hayes started looking around. “I’m thinking either he is looking for an avenue of escape to run or he’s looking at a target, an officer, to shoot.”
As Hayes did that “he takes his right hand and he drops it to the small of his back,” Hearst testified.
“Immediately, as he kind of puts it [his hand] down, he pulls it back out.”
Hearst described an emotional wave hitting him. He almost shot Hayes at that very moment, but didn’t.
Then Hearst saw Hayes taking his hand and reaching towards the front of his waistband.
“Boom. Boom. Boom.”
Hearst fired his rifle. He heard it go off. Hayes dropped to the ground immediately.
Hearst described that final movement by Hayes – reaching towards his waistband – as “very intentional and very deliberate.”Homeowner: ‘I was scared’
The woman who lives in the 8300 block of Northeast Tillamook, where Hayes reportedly started pounding on the door also testified before the grand jury.
KOIN 6 News is not identifying her.
She said she was in the process of getting her kids ready for the day when her daughter yelled out, “someone is at our door.”
The woman was getting ready to run to the front door when her daughter said, “No, the back sliding door.”
When the woman looked out her window, she saw her dog “aggressively” barking at a young man holding a suitcase outside.
That person would turn out to be Hayes.
“I need, I need to ask you something,” he said.
“No. Get out of my yard,” the woman replied, according to the grand jury testimony.
The woman told the grand jury that the only way Hayes could have ended up in her backyard was by climbing a large fence.
The woman’s daughter went to get her phone so she could call 911.
“Get upstairs,” the woman told her children.
Hayes, according to the testimony, started banging on the door and started to shake the doorknob.
“I was scared,” the woman told the grand jury.
Other notes from the grand jury transcript:
- The orange tip that is required on replica guns had been removed to make it appear even more realistic
- The coloring of the gun, desert tan or desert camo, is a very common color used in real guns
- Currently, no officers wear body cameras in the City of Portland
- The lead detective believes that Hayes had his hand on the gun when he was shot
- In the days leading up to the shooting, Hayes had been staying at a hotel on 82nd Avenue
- Sometime in 2016, Hayes was listed a missing person
KOIN 6 News has a team reading through the transcripts and police reports. Check back often for updated information.