BEAVERTON, Ore. – Police said the 18-year-old man who wrestled a gun away from an officer at Beaverton City Hall and fired off a shot last week was high on mushrooms and had “superhuman strength.”
Jared Steven Leone walked into Beaverton City Hall on Friday evening and told a person at the police department’s records desk that he was overdosing on drugs and needed help. Three officers came out to the lobby and that’s when police said Leone swung a punch at one of the officers and a “melee” ensued.
Detective Sergeant Jim Shumway reviewed surveillance video of the fight. He said it took the officers six minutes to restrain Leone and take him into custody.
“At some point, they did get him handcuffed,” said Shumway. “He broke those handcuffs.”
Leone grabbed a gun from one of the officers and fired a single shot during the fight. No one was hit. The bullet went into a wall with an empty room on the other side.
“They did all they could to retrain him as soon as they could,” Shumway said. “He had what appears to be superhuman strength.”
The officers used Tasers on Leone seven times during the fight, but they had no effect. Shumway said Leone appeared to be unable to feel pain. He was speaking gibberish and acting like he was on drugs.
“Somebody could have been killed from this. This could have been a real tragedy,” Shumway said.
One officer involved in the struggle suffered a shoulder injury and was taken to the hospital.
Leone faces charges including assaulting a public safety officer, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. Police took Leone to the Washington County Jail.
Attacked police? Check.
Took officers gun? Check.
Presented clear danger to officers? Check.
Killed? Nope. Taken alive.
Black man? Nope. He was white.
Interesting that the justification so many people used for Darren Wilson’s murder of Michael Brown was that Wilson was in danger or that Brown was a hulking menace, or that Brown reached for Wilson’s gun. Yet there is no indication that Wilson was attacked by Brown, there’s no indication Brown went for murderous cop’s gun, and sure, Brown was a bigger guy, but being a physically imposing person does not make someone a threat. Also, Michael Brown was running away from Officer Wilson-unarmed, remember-when Wilson decided “I’ve got to kill this kid.”
The Portland cops are getting a little better; they haven’t shot an unarmed black person to death in nearly two years now, which is a major accomplishment for them.
Geez, how bad did you folks have it in Portland?
For about the first decade I was here, they averaged 1-2 per year, although sometimes they changed it up and shot an unarmed Hispanic person instead, or beat them to death instead of shooting. We had a whole string of police chiefs who alternately claimed it wasn’t a problem and swore they’d do something about it, and it looks like the current smirking asshole actually managed to change things a bit. (I still have a pretty low opinion of the Portland cops, in case it wasn’t clear).