Oregon Public Broadcasting

A Washington County family is still grieving a year and a half after police shot and killed 20 year-old, Jordan Case.

Shannon Case: “It wasn’t only my brother’s hopes and dreams that were killed the night of October 22nd. It was my family’s, it was his co-worker’s, it was his friends’, and it was mine. No one deserves to die like this.”  

Shannon Case and her parents made tearful statements on the steps of the Hatfield courthouse in downtown Portland yesterday. The family had just filed a federal lawsuit against three suburban police forces in Jordan Case's death. As Rob Manning reports, they’re arguing that officers overreacted that fall night in 2006.

Close to midnight on October 21st, 2006, Jordan Case consumed psychedelic mushrooms and wandered into a neighbor’s apartment. The surprised woman who lived there called 911. Police responded by trying to subdue Case with taser guns, beanbag rounds, and finally, the live bullet rounds that killed him. Laird Case is Jordan’s father and a Salem firefighter. Laird Case says the officers and emergency dispatchers blew it in his son’s case.

Laird Case: “The 911 center failed to give information. There was nothing in the report that the officers even communicated between themselves on how they were going to take down Jordan. And that’s real common – you talk to each other. They just proceeded to taze him and beanbag him, and the only time they talked about handcuffing him, was when he was laying there dying.”

The Washington County District Attorney concluded his investigation in November 2006, a month after the shooting. His decision not to charge the officers appeared to rely heavily on Jordan Case’s attempt to get inside one of the officer’s patrol cars, possibly to obtain a rifle. Case family attorney, Steven Sherlag, says the police could have avoided that. But Sherlag says he wasn’t surprised at the DA’s conclusion.

Sherlag:  “The District Attorney apparently reviewed the file and they indicated they didn’t feel any need whatsoever to take the case to a Grand Jury. And frankly, in this community, we’ve come to learn that that is the standard issue with the way District Attorney’s offices deal with officers who use force of a very questionable nature, while on duty.”

Sherlag was probably referring to previous cases in Portland as well as Washington and Clackamas counties, where District Attorneys have decided not to charge officers involved in recent police shootings. The Washington County DA declined to comment this week. A trial could be as much as two years away. In the meantime, the Case family is planning an evening vigil in downtown Portland Friday night.