04-25-2024  10:57 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

City Council Strikes Down Gonzalez’s ‘Inhumane’ Suggestion for Blanket Ban on Public Camping

Mayor Wheeler’s proposal for non-emergency ordinance will go to second reading.

A Conservative Quest to Limit Diversity Programs Gains Momentum in States

In support of DEI, Oregon and Washington have forged ahead with legislation to expand their emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in government and education.

Epiphanny Prince Hired by Liberty in Front Office Job Day After Retiring

A day after announcing her retirement, Epiphanny Prince has a new job working with the New York Liberty as director of player and community engagement. Prince will serve on the basketball operations and business staffs, bringing her 14 years of WNBA experience to the franchise. 

The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative

Mt. Tabor Park is the only Oregon park and one of just 24 nationally to receive honor. ...

OHCS, BuildUp Oregon Launch Program to Expand Early Childhood Education Access Statewide

Funds include million for developing early care and education facilities co-located with affordable housing. ...

Governor Kotek Announces Chief of Staff, New Office Leadership

Governor expands executive team and names new Housing and Homelessness Initiative Director ...

Governor Kotek Announces Investment in New CHIPS Child Care Fund

5 Million dollars from Oregon CHIPS Act to be allocated to new Child Care Fund ...

Net neutrality restored as FCC votes to regulate internet providers

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday voted to restore “net neutrality” rules that prevent broadband internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from favoring some sites and apps over others. The move effectively reinstates a net neutrality order the...

Biden celebrates computer chip factories, pitching voters on American 'comeback'

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday sought to sell voters on an American “comeback story” as he highlighted longterm investments in the economy in upstate New York to celebrate Micron Technology's plans to build a campus of computer chip factories made possible in part with...

Missouri hires Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch for the same role with the Tigers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri hired longtime college administrator Laird Veatch to be its athletic director on Tuesday, bringing him back to campus 14 years after he departed for a series of other positions that culminated with five years spent as the AD at Memphis. Veatch...

KC Current owners announce plans for stadium district along the Kansas City riverfront

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The ownership group of the Kansas City Current announced plans Monday for the development of the Missouri River waterfront, where the club recently opened a purpose-built stadium for the National Women's Soccer League team. CPKC Stadium will serve as the hub...

OPINION

Op-Ed: Why MAGA Policies Are Detrimental to Black Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE – MAGA proponents peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black voters. From restrictive voter ID laws to purging voter rolls to limiting early voting hours, these...

Loving and Embracing the Differences in Our Youngest Learners

Yet our responsibility to all parents and society at large means we must do more to share insights, especially with underserved and under-resourced communities. ...

Gallup Finds Black Generational Divide on Affirmative Action

Each spring, many aspiring students and their families begin receiving college acceptance letters and offers of financial aid packages. This year’s college decisions will add yet another consideration: the effects of a 2023 Supreme Court, 6-3 ruling that...

OP-ED: Embracing Black Men’s Voices: Rebuilding Trust and Unity in the Democratic Party

The decision of many Black men to disengage from the Democratic Party is rooted in a complex interplay of historical disenchantment, unmet promises, and a sense of disillusionment with the political establishment. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Repatriated South African apartheid-era artworks on display to celebrate 30 years of democracy

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A selection of South African artworks produced during the country’s apartheid era which ended up in foreign art collections is on display in Johannesburg to mark 30 years since the country's transition to democracy in 1994. Most of the artworks were taken out...

South Africa to mark 30 years of freedom amid inequality, poverty and a tense election ahead

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — As 72-year-old Nonki Kunene walks through the corridors of Thabisang Primary School in Soweto, South Africa, she recalls the joy she and many others felt 30 years ago when they voted for the first time. It was at this school on April 27, 1994 that Kunene joined...

Tennessee lawmakers adjourn after finalizing jumi.9B tax cut and refund for businesses

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's GOP-controlled General Assembly on Thursday adjourned for the year, concluding months of tense political infighting that doomed Republican Gov. Bill Lee's universal school voucher push. But a bill allowing some teachers to carry firearms in public schools and...

ENTERTAINMENT

Music Review: Jazz pianist Fred Hersch creates subdued, lovely colors on 'Silent, Listening'

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch fully embraces the freedom that comes with improvisation on his solo album “Silent, Listening,” spontaneously composing and performing tunes that are often without melody, meter or form. Listening to them can be challenging and rewarding. The many-time...

Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace

Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking without realizing it. We first meet him as a boy reading a superhero comic on the banks of a river in his backcountry hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia....

Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots to headline the BET Experience concerts in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots will headline concerts to celebrate the return of the BET Experience in Los Angeles just days before the 2024 BET Awards. BET announced Monday the star-studded lineup of the concert series, which makes a return after a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

South Africa to mark 30 years of freedom amid inequality, poverty and a tense election ahead

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — As 72-year-old Nonki Kunene walks through the corridors of Thabisang Primary School in...

Charges against Trump's 2020 'fake electors' are expected to deter a repeat this year

An Arizona grand jury's indictment of 18 people who either posed as or helped organize a slate of electors falsely...

Trading Trump: Truth Social's first month of trading has sent investors on a ride

WASHINGTON (AP) — There have been lawsuits, short-selling and rampant speculation. Now, as Trump Media &...

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to...

Guatemalan prosecutors raid offices of Save the Children charity

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan prosecutors raided the offices of the charity Save the Children on Thursday,...

AP Week in Pictures: Global

April 19-25, 2024 The U.S. House swiftly approves billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and...

Lisa Loving and Brian Stimson of The Skanner News

Grand Jury transcripts in the shooting death of Keaton Dupree Otis may be released as early as today, Multnomah County District Attorney spokesman Norm Frink said.
The May 12 shooting is the third fatal incident involving police interacting with men in mental health crisis so far this year. City leaders have made it clear they support release of Grand Jury transcripts -- which have previously been kept secret -- as a police accountability measure.

Officer Chris Burley, center, flanked by Sgt. Don Livingstone, left, and Officer Ryan Foote, right, describes his shooting May 12. All the officers were on the scene of Otis' shooting; none of the three fired their weapons.

A court reporter has been ill, which delayed the expected release of documents, Schrunk said Friday. A Grand Jury cleared Portland Police officers of wrongdoing in the case.

Among the questions which may be answered by the Grand Jury transcripts is the mystery of why no bullet casings were found on the scene from Otis' gun. Police say Officer Chris Burley was shot twice by Otis, but a roster of items recovered at the crime scene indicated Otis' gun would have discharged "gold-colored" casings, none of which are listed on the evidence log.

However some 30 "silver-colored" casings are listed, all apparently from police weapons. In the course of the shooting, the police investigation showed that Officer Jim Defrain had fired 15 rounds; Officer Andrew Polas had fired six rounds; and Officer Cody Berne fired 11 rounds. All used the same make and model service weapon, a 9 mm Glock.

The police documents indicate Otis was carrying a Taurus Millenium 111 PT semi-automatic handgun, a model made in Brazil and designed for concealed carrying, according to the company's website.

 

In documents released by the police bureau, Officer Brian Dale reports that he "later saw a silver semi-auto handgun on the driver's seat of the suspect's car," but nothing else is noted about its condition. Otis' dead body was reportedly half in, half out of the Toyota Corolla, as officers had tried to physicallly drag him out of the driver's seat.

Burley confirmed at a press conference Thursday morning that he was one of the officers trying to drag Otis out of the car, and that he had his hands on Otis' shoulders just before the shots were fired. He is shown in the diagram as being well away from Otis' vehicle, on the driver's side, during the shooting.

Burley spoke surrounded by middle school graduates of the Gang Resistance Outreach and Training group he leads.
The GREAT kids faced a bank of television, radio and newspaper reporters to recount their feelings of sadness and fear upon learning their teacher was shot in a traffic stop.
Afterward, Burley told his emotional story about how the incident affected him, and described the counseling and support services he's getting to recover from the shooting. Burley did not fire his weapon in the incident.

A television reporter pressed him on the issue of whether he knew Otis was planning to shoot. Burley twice said he had no idea what was going to happen.


Police records indicate the officers, all members of the HEAT gang enforcement squad, pulled Otis over for what appears to be a pretext stop.

Officer Burley's GREAT students showed their support for his recovery at a press conference at the East Precinct June 3

Officers testified in the bureau's internal investigation that Otis failed to signal lane changes, was wearing a hoodie up, and stared at one police car through his rear-view mirror, all of which gained the attention of officers who pulled him over near Lloyd Center.
The nearly 700-page collection of reports released by the Portland Police Department this week raises a number of questions, which may be answered by the Grand Jury transcripts, including motivation for the stop in the first place, as well as what may be questionable actions at the scene.

A police bureau diagram shows that one officer actually ran through the trajectory of gunfire unleashed by three other police officers to get out of the line of fire.

Police Chief Reese and Mayor Sam Adams today released to the media the results of the bureau's investigations into the May 12 incident, which ended in Otis' death from multiple shotgun wounds, and an officer hospitalized, also with gunshot wounds.
The transcripts from the Grand Jury investigation, which found no wrongdoing by the police officers, may be released this week, pending a judge's order.

 
Police Chief Mike Reese

Police report that Otis was armed with a semi-automatic handgun, and that the situation went out of control as he reached for the gun in a car's glove box.
They say Otis was hit by "less lethal" weapons three times before the gunshots were fired, and that he was treated at the scene by paramedics before being pronounced dead.
Burley has since been released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
The police documents indicate Otis was carrying a Taurus Millenium 111 PT semi-automatic handgun, a model made in Brazil and designed for concealed carrying, according to the company's website.
The official police bureau diagram of the Otis shooting shows Officers Defrain, Berne and Polas on the left side of the car firing at the driver, while Murphy is on the right side of the car.
Murphy apparently ran from a position just behind the passenger side window, forward in a trajectory parallel to the line of fire.
Also this year, Murphy was involved in a Jan.28 incident in which a Portland Community College women's basketball team member was stopped by police, cuffed, and released, triggering an investigation by the Independent Police Review Board.
Records showed Murphy held Delease Carter's legs as another officer cuffed her. Carter, whose coach at PCC pulled her from a basketball game the next morning because of fears she had a concussion, and who was treated at Emanuel Hospital for injuries sustained in the encounter, has filed a tort claim against the city.
The records in the May 12 Otis shooting show that a bicyclist who stopped on a nearby street corner, as well as a nearby resident who recorded the stop on an iphone, were key witnesses able to describe the entire scene as it unfolded.
However their testimony – and the rest of the witness testimony – was contradictory, the police reports show. All witness names were blanked out from the police records released Tuesday morning.
The police report quotes the bike witness describing the three-minute stop as "routine," but adding that it progressively "got tense." By the times shots were fired, he said, the scene had become one of "controlled hysteria."
Within minutes four patrol cars boxed Otis' car in near the corner of Northeast Halsey and 6th Avenues, with seven officers on the scene at the time the gunshots rang out, police reports show.
The bike witness says Otis appeared to start arguing with the police after refusing to get out of his car.
One officer then fetched a Taser, while others tried to pull Otis out by the arms as he sat in the driver's seat.
"(Blanked out) said the officer with the taser fired it at the person in the car, and the person responded by leaning or slumping over. He said very quickly afterward, there were shots fired by the officers at the person inside the car. (Blanked out) said he could not see well enough to determine if the person inside the car had a weapon to fire back."
According to the police report, this witness described himself as "neutral to the police," and said he did not think officers "provoked" Otis until he refused to step out of the car.
The iphone witness said the officers started screaming at Otis from the very beginning of the stop because he would not raise his hands as he was ordered to do. She decided to video the traffic stop because she "figured things were not going to go well," according to a detective's report on the interview.
A third witness, who is described in other testimony as an "elderly African American woman," told officers that Otis promptly put his hands up when commanded to do so, and that when Otis' hands were raised an officer "started to hit him."
The African American witness told officers she was going to pick up her granddaughter from elementary school for a trip to McDonald's with when she saw the unmarked police car pull in front of Otis' Toyota.
She said a "bald headed officer" yelled at Otis and hit him, then a second officer Tased him through the open back passenger window before the bald officer Tased Otis again through the front drivers' side window.
"She stated shortly after OTIS was tazed the second time, he looked at her and asked her not to leave him because the police were going to kill him," the police report says.
In her interview with officers after the incident, the woman – who was described elsewhere in the report as "convulsing" and in shock after Otis' death – says she could "see the front of OTIS from his belt to the top of his head and she knew he didn't have a gun."

Otis' family, in a statement to the media, declared that the budding artist had been diagnosed with a "mood disorder," which made it difficult for him to get along in the larger society.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast